XMen: Daughter of Darkness
by Solar Beam
Summary: Danny is a young, 15yearold girl with a dark secret. She puts anyone in danger around her, but when she gets sent to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, will she be able to control her gift and learn her past? Or will she be even more dangerous?[R&R]
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I do not own X-Men or any of the Marvel characters, and if I did I would be a genius. Which I'm not. So obviously I do not own any of the wonderful characters.  
**Story Title: **X-Men: Dauther of Darkness  
**Category: **Romance/Action/…  
**Rating: **T for Teen  
**Pairings: **N/A Yet  
**Summary:** Danny is a young, 15-year-old girl with a dark secret. She puts anyone in danger around her, but when she gets sent to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, will she be able to control her gift and learn her past? Or will she be even more dangerous than before? Takes place after X-men III.

**A/N:** So...here is the wonderful prologue to my story! Please read and review, I would love to know what you guys thought of it! If I don't get any review, then I won't write anymore of it. So please review!

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**_Prologue:_**

"No…" she said with more finality.

"Come on, Danny. Your parents aren't even home," coaxed the young man once more, nudging the tan girl softly in the ribs. He reached around her waist from behind, trying to butter his girl-friend up. He placed his lips near her ear and spoke softer, "You didn't tell them I was coming, did you?" He

The girl, Danny, felt chills run down her tan arms, and she shivered. She could feel him laugh, feel his breath against her neck. She gulped; she had been told to say 'no'. And that's what she was good at doing. She was a flirt, but she wasn't stupid. He pulled her closely, and she spun around and snapped, "I said no, Jake!"

"Danny!" Danny pulled away from him and backed up against the counter of her mother's kitchen and jumped up onto it, sitting down on top of it. She shut her dark-brown eyes and looked away a moment, taking a deep breath. She knew that he was disappointed in her, but she'd be even more disappointed if she said 'yes'. She shook her head. "Aw, Danny," he started, looking away as well, "then why did you invite me over?"

"Because!" Danny said, swinging her head back around. A tear rolled down her cheek innocently. She had wanted to spend time with him. He knew she was going away soon, though he didn't know why. He knew she was leaving to go to a school, a boarding school, a school far away that he couldn't visit. "I wanted to spend time with you before I go…"

He came closer to her, wrapping his arms around her waist lightly, looking into her eyes now. She read right through his hazel eyes that were trying to conceal his meaning for coming. He knew she was leaving, he knew she wasn't going to be back for a long time, and he had wanted to take advantage of that. "I know that, Danny," he said softly. Danny looked away. He inched his head closer and kissed her cheek, she looked back at him, slightly surprised. He took that chance and suddenly kissed her full on the lips, and at first she leaned into it, wrapping her arms around his waist. But then he began fiddling with her peasant, tie blouse and she pushed him.

"I said no!"

He didn't look surprised, but came slower, not moving his eyes from hers. He began untying the blouse, and for a moment Danny couldn't find the strength to stop him. It wasn't until he was pulling the sleeves down, and he was running a hand through her black locks of hair, that she realized what was happening. Her eyes began to glow, but not a happy glow. A dark glow and the darkness enveloped her eyes, shining out of her eyes blindly like black flames. The shadows in the kitchen began to flicker, and then the lights went out. Jake fell backwards in surprise, and Danny jumped off the counter, completely lost to her power.

"I asked nicely," she said, her voice slightly echoing with the power of darkness, "I asked you to stop." Jake looked clearly frightened, he didn't know his girl-friend was a mutant!

"D-Danny," he said hesitantly. Danny was lost though, the Danny he knew was gone. In her place, was the daughter of shadow, and she was not happy.

Danny raised her hands in front of her, palms out facing Jake who was making his way toward the door of the kitchen. "Now you're getting what you deserve, Jake!" she said quietly, and a black light began to blink in and out in her palm. Suddenly, it grew to a darker pitch and became stronger, and when the power was strong enough, she released the pent-up energy. Two beams of light shot toward Jake, and he dodged just barely, his eyes wide in fear. Danny smirked, and she followed him, her feet not touching the ground, but stepping into a shadow of a stage.

Jake ran into the hall. It was dark in the whole house, and it was dark outside. Everything around the house and outside was now her bidding…was now her element. She looked around, her eyes still flaming with black fire. "Come out; come out, wherever you are." Suddenly her eyes spotted his huddled form, and she walked up to him. He was crouched behind the couch in the living room. She smirked. "Hello, Jake." And then a shadow formed beneath Jake and he began to sink into it. He tried to get out of it, but he kept sinking. When his head was about to go under, Danny bent down and examined his petrified face. "Welcome to my world," and then he was engulfed completely, his screams for help muffled by darkness.

Danny felt light-hearted, and she dropped to her knees. Her brown-eyes, back to normal, flickered open and at the same time, the lights came on. She looked around; Jake was gone. The house was in a chaotic mess. Her parents were do home…

"Danny, we're home!"

Danny swung her head around to see her mother walk in, hanging her black coat onto the coat rack. "The opera was wonderful; you really…missed…something…" Her mother looked around the house, her jaw dropped.

"Yes, you really did. How are you," her father walked in, all decked out in his black suit and tie, "feeling." he finished. He looked once at the house, and then back at Danny fearfully. "Danny, princess, what happened?"

Danny's eyes watered, but she felt too exhausted. She took a step toward her parents, but found that she couldn't even take a step. She grabbed hold of the couch desperately, searching for the strength. "I'm…sorry," she gasped before fainting onto the ground.


	2. Chapter One

**Disclaimer:** I do not own X-Men or any of the Marvel characters, and if I did I would be a genius. Which I'm not. So obviously I do not own any of the wonderful characters.  
**Story Title: **X-Men: Dauther of Darkness  
**Category: **Romance/Action/…  
**Rating: **T for Teen  
**Pairings: **N/A Yet  
**Summary:** after the little incident with Jake, Danny leaves for the school sooner than she had planned. What will she meet there? And will she be welcomed with open arms? And what is this about her past that gets Logan so curious? Read and find out!

**A/N:** So, here is the first chapter of the book! It might look kind of short, but its a whopping 6 pages on Microsoft Word! Anyways, in this chapter you learn more about Danny's family and life. You also meet some of the X-Men cast! Please read and review! Enjoy!  
-Solar Beam

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**_Chapter One: _New Meat**

"So, why again didn't Mom come?" Danny asked, looking out the window to her father's white suburban. She was on the way to her new school in Westchester, New York. She turned her head slightly and looked at her father's handsome profile. With his tan skin, and brown shaggy hair, it was hard to believe that he was not her real father. Even so, she loved him twice as much.

"She didn't feel good," he answered simply, stopping at a red light and looking both ways before turning right. They both knew that was a lie! Her mother didn't want to go because she didn't want to see her baby girl be sent off on her own before she went to college! Either that or she was scared of what she would see at the new school. Danny bit her lip and looked out the window once more.

"I'm sure," she said softly, and then she ran her fingers through her wavy, brown-black hair. She let out a sigh, and felt her father's sad gaze on her face. She didn't turn her head; she wished her mother had come. She wanted to say good-bye to a lively woman, not to a women laying in bed acting like she had a cold when really she had been crying all night. She bit her lip and gazed at the passing cars, and at the houses.

What would she find at this new school? Would she be alone? What if she never made any new friends? She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want her dark side to take over, that was why she was always happy. If she wasn't happy, her power would take over her whole body. Before she knew it, her father was shaking her awake and she realized she had dozed off.

"We're almost there," he said softly. He pointed down the street, and turned in to the drive. She bit her lip. They weren't almost there, they _were_ there. They went down the cobblestone drive, and into a gate. Not before Danny saw a small, bronze plaque in the stone pillar that read: Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

Danny swore that her heart rate, at that very moment, quickened to an alarming speed. She turned her head to look at her father, whose face looked pale. Kids were in the drive, waving to each other, and then they ran off inside as a bell rang. Danny stepped from the suburban, flattening her white mini-skirt and then straightening her light pink tank-top. She looked back at her father who was pulling her roll-on baggage and her black duffle from the car. Instantly, someone was there to help.

The young man, blonde streaked hair spiked slightly, smiled at Danny, and she smiled back. He was handsome; he was wearing baggy cargo shorts, and a blue T-shirt. Maybe she _would_ like it here. "Here, sir, let me help you with that," the young man said. He took the duffle, and then turned to Danny, slipping out his hand to her. "The name's Bobby," he said.

"Danny," she answered, shaking his hand. He nodded with a grin, and then led the way inside. Her father was beside Danny, and he handed her the small, black backpack in which she had packed all of her small belongings.

"The headmistress of the school will see you in here," he said, opening the large, brown-wood doors. Inside was a smallish room, circular, and near the windows which lined the walls was a brown desk with a computer and papers. Along the east wall were bookshelves, and to the west shelves with pictures, trophies, and memories.

"Thank you, Bobby, I think I can handle it from here," said a white-haired woman, stepping into the room from a side door. Bobby nodded, waved to Danny, and then exited the room. "You must be Danny Hutchinson, and her father I presume." Danny nodded and her father took her hand, shaking it. "Right, I am Ororo Munroe," she introduced herself with a smile, but it faltered slightly as she added, "headmistress of the Xavier School. Please, have a seat."

She waved to two chairs in front of the desk, and Danny and her father sat carefully. Danny watched Ms. Munroe, transfixed with her black dress-skirt and her white blouse, and the high-heels. But what really got Danny was her white hair that had black wisps, which was cut to spike up slightly. _I want hair like that,_ Danny thought, with a kind smile.

Suddenly, the door from which Danny and her father had entered opened and a burly man walked in, wearing a leather jacket over a white T-shirt, and jeans. _How can he wear jeans in this heat?_ Danny thought, almost immediately taking a liking to him, though she had no idea who he was. His hair, at the sides, was flipped up to form ears, almost. She smiled at him, but he only gave the twitch of the side of his mouth as a smile. Ms. Munroe stood with a quavering smile, "This is my second-in-command, Logan Howlett," she said.

Her father stepped forward to shake, but Mr. Howlett merely nodded to him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Howlett," Danny said, staying in her seat. His head turned to her sharply, and her brown eyes widened. He had fast reflexes, though she couldn't find what had caused him to turn so.

"Just Logan," he said, his voice rough and growl-ish. He turned back to Ms. Munroe, "Ororo, classes have started. McCoy wants you to come see the progress in his new classroom." Danny watched the reaction between the two; both clearly seemed annoyed, though for different reasons.

"Thank you, Logan. Tell him I will be there soon with a new student," she smiled warmly, and Logan turned slowly, growling under his breath as he left. Once gone, Ororo took on a kinder air and she turned back to the two. She sat in her chair, crossing her fingers over the desk and intertwining her fingers. She looked at Danny. "So, Danny, may I ask: what is your special gift that makes you apart from the rest in your life?"

Danny was taken aback by this question, but then again, she had enrolled into a mutant school. She looked at her father for guidance, and without moving his eyes from Ms. Munroe, he nodded in encouragement. Ororo watched this curiously, but then looked back at Danny. "I control an element," she said, surprised that her voice felt so strong. She wished she actually felt that way.

"Which element?" Ms. Munroe asked, leaning forward in pure interest. Danny looked at her like she was crazy; she had never told anyone more than that if they knew she had mutant abilities. Her parents had always told her not to tell anyone because of the war that was going on between the mutants. She bit her lip, and looked to her father, and once more he nodded.

"I control darkness," she said softly. At this, Ms. Munroe's eyes widened. "Shadows mostly. I'm strongest at night, and in the dark." She didn't want to add more; that she couldn't control it when she was angry, that she had to stay happy or she would be engulfed completely, that she had sent her boyfriend into the world of utter and complete darkness. But Ms. Munroe had these questions lined up already.

"You are here because you cannot control them," she said, not asking but stating, "and you are scared that you might hurt others around you, and those you love." Danny's eyes widened as Ms. Munroe hit it to the point. She shuffled in her chair, looking at the palms of her hands. Ororo smiled sadly. "But that's why all the students came here, Danny. You aren't alone." She stood briskly, brushing the invisible dust off her blouse. She headed toward the doors from the main entrance into her room.

She opened the doors and waved them through. "If you would come with me," she said with a smile, "I would like to show you how a class would work her at the school." She ushered them out of the room and started down the center of a large entry hall. A large, royal staircase circled up from across her office, and up into a second floor. She motioned to it, catching Danny studying the stairs. "That goes up to the student's rooms," she said.

"Are the boys and girls rooms separated by floors?" asked her father. Danny felt a soft blush circle from her neck up to her cheeks, embarrassed by her father. If only he knew what she and Jake had done (just kissing, but still). Ms. Munroe laughed, winking at Danny.

"Mr. Hutchinson, I assure you that though the student's are all on the same level, there are strict rules about the boys in the girls' rooms and vise versa." Though she smiled warmly, Danny just wanted to smack her forehead with her hand and drag it down her face. But that would make a show, and she didn't want to do that. Instead, she let her exasperation for her father ventilate into the surrounding shadows around her, and they flickered and shuttered slightly with the force, but stayed in control. Ororo wouldn't let that pass her forceful gaze and she frowned slightly as she watched through the side of her eyes.

Her father became silent, and soon Logan was beside Ororo. Danny desperately wanted to know their mutation powers, but she kept to herself. She would know soon enough, anyways, either way if they showed her or told her. She smiled to herself confidently, and they continued walking. Logan whispered something to Ororo, and she nodded. They both glanced to Danny, but neither spoke to her. Her father wrapped his arms around her shoulder as they entered a door. Inside, students sat in lines of desks watching a large, blue beast mark something on a green chalkboard. Danny heard her father gasp, but she kept in her own out of embarrassment for the poor beast.

"Danny, may I introduce to you our newest teacher at the institute, Hank McCoy," whispered Ms. Munroe, her voice slightly sad. _But shouldn't that be a good thing?_ Thought Danny, watching the beast turn to his class and begin to talk. That's when she realized that beneath the blue furry exterior, there was a man within. So he was a mutant. She felt bad for him, wondering what it was like to show your mutation like that so freely.

"Ah, hello, Ms. Munroe! Students, continue your reading." The beast began to pick his way through the desks, snapping his fingers in front of those students who turned to look back at Danny in curiosity. Danny recognized Bobby from earlier, and he smiled at her, before his attention was drawn back to his reading by a young girl with light brown hair and kind hazel eyes.

"Who do we have here?" asked the monstrous teacher, who rocked back on his heels to get a better look at Danny. Danny looked down in slight shyness. Mr. McCoy laughed slightly, and smiled at her father, who was still stunned into silence.

"This is our newest student, Mr. McCoy. Her name is Danny Hutchinson!" answered Ms. Munroe, patting Danny on her back, sure not to touch her father's arm while she was at it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Hutchinson! I'm sure you will love it here," he paused, and then looked back at Ms. Munroe. He looked as if he were about to ask another question, but Ororo quickly shook her head, silencing him with a few of her own words:

"The class looks great, Hank," she said, smiling warmly. "You're doing a great job, the Professor would have been proud." Both Logan and Hank froze for only a moment in shock at the name of the creator of the school, but then Hank nodded.

"Thank you, now if you don't mind, I need to head back into my own class." He headed to the front of the class once more, and began writing on the board in quick strokes of the white chalk.

Danny looked up to Ms. Munroe with a kind smile, "He is pleasurable," she said, gulping down the fear she had been fighting while standing in front of the large, blue man.

Ororo laughed, and oh! Her laugh was so wonderful. "Yes, you could say that." Logan rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall. He hadn't spoken one word during this whole ordeal, and it seemed he wasn't ever going to. His hairy arms were crossed over his chest, and it was then that Danny noted that his jacket had been discarded somewhere. Ororo looked at Logan a moment, and then back at Danny with another smile. "So, how do you like it?"

Danny had only seen a few rooms, but already she could tell she would love it. Though the fears of being a new student still wheeled in her head, the other fears in which she had had vanished. "Its beautiful here," she turned to her father, "Oh, Daddy, please!" Though it had already been decided that she would go here, her mother had told her father that he was to agree to it after seeing the school for himself.

"It really is wonderful," he said off-handedly, and then he turned to Ororo with the first smile he had bared to show, "this is an excellent place for her. I think I would like to finish up those papers, now." Ororo grinned, and led the small group back into her office.

Inside the office, they took their seats once more in front of the lovely desk. Ororo sat in her seat behind the desk, and Logan stood post beside her against the wall, in between two windows. Once the papers were handed to her father, it became silent except for an awkward cough placed in by Danny herself. She readjusted herself in her seat, watching apprehensible as her father began to read over the papers. _Just sign already!_

That's when the gruff voice broke the silence. "So, are there any other mutants in your family?"

All eyes turned to Logan, who was still leaning against the wall, gazing out the window with his arms crossed against his chest. Ororo narrowed her eyes, and though she had been wondering the same thing, she did not have the guts to ask. Obviously Logan did, and this irritated her. He had asked without pure reason other than rash curiosity!

Danny looked down sadly, fiddling her thumbs back and forth in her lap. She then twiddled with her white mini-skirt, before looking back up at Logan. Her brown eyes were saddened, not the happy shine they normally were. "I don't have any other family," she said softly.

Ororo gaped and Logan finally turned to look at her in dumb-founded surprise. "What she means is," her father quickly cut in, "is that she is adopted." The surprise filtered out of their eyes, and he continued, "We found her on our doorstep, just a small seven-year-old looking for shelter in a terrible storm. She was matted and dirty, and she couldn't remember anything," he looked over to Danny sadly, "We asked her constantly that night who her parents were, and she told us multiple times that she couldn't remember. Did she have any siblings? She said she didn't know…that it was all a blank. Everything from days before that night was gone from her very memory. She couldn't even remember where she had gotten the cut on her chin!"

Now all eyes were on her, and Danny fidgeted under their gazes. So what if she didn't know who her real parents were? It wasn't their fault that they abandoned her; she wouldn't blame them. She was a mutant, and she had probably shown signs of her mutation as a child and that was why they had abandoned her. She bit her lip, a bad habit of hers when she was nervous.

"Nothing?" whispered Ororo. Danny shook her head, her light waves beating against her head at the quick response to her shaking head. Logan became quiet once more, but his gaze never left Danny. She didn't like him watching her, it made her queasy and self-conscious.

It seemed like days, but finally her father stood with her outside the front building. Her father looked up at the wonderful architecture of the institute, and then looked back down at his lovely daughter. He placed his hands on her shoulders, and then quickly he brought her into a tight hug. "I love you, Dad," she said softly.

She heard her father cough slightly, trying to stifle the tears. "I love you, too, Princess," he said, kissing the top of her head lightly. Then he backed up and looked at his daughter. "Call us if anything changes, alright? Write to us, you hear me!" Danny nodded and once more she was brought into a hug, but this time Danny just rolled her eyes. "I have to go," he said backing up. "I'll tell your mother you are settled," he said before getting into the car. And then he turned on the engine and rolled around until he was passing through the gate. That was when he honked his horn and waved his hand outside the window.

He was gone. She was alone. "Oh, how sweet! Baby girl needs her _daddy_ to bring her to school," mocked a masculine voice behind her. She spun around in surprise, and nearly hit a brown-headed teen who had been standing behind her. _For how long has he been there?_

Immediately, she hated him. Something about the way his nose fit his face just right, and his cheeks and forehead and chin fit to a T and came at perfect angles. The way his brown eyes mocked her every movement, the way his brown hair fell in front of his eyes. The way he wore his baggy cargos, the way he wore his baggy black T-shirt. "The name's Titanium," he said coolly, "you must be the new meat."

_Oh god, what have I gotten myself into?_


	3. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer:** I do not own X-Men or any of the Marvel characters, and if I did I would be a genius. Which I'm not. So obviously I do not own any of the wonderful characters.  
**Story Title: **X-Men: Dauther of Darkness  
**Category: **Romance/Action/…  
**Rating: **T for Teen  
**Pairings: **N/A Yet  
**Summary:** Danny meets new friends and new enemies. But what happens when she gets herself alone in her room, staring at the picture of Jake and she loses control again? Who will she meet unexpectedly? Read and find out! 

**A/N:** Second chapter! This one is a little messy, but that's okay. It ended in a spot where, I think, was a great spot. Not really a cliff-hanger, but it will do for now. Anyways, this is my last update before I leave to go visit my sister! So, please read and review. I would love to know what you guys think of it so far!

-Solar Beam

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**_Chapter Two:_** **Dark Child**

Danny crossed her arms over her chest, watching the boy with narrowed eyes. Yep, she definitely had a problem with him. "What kind of name is Titanium?" she asked coldly. He seemed amused with her answer, and he chuckled, shaking his head. _What's so funny?_ The only thing she could find funny was the way the boy though he was so tough. He had to be her age, at least fifteen.

"Titanium is only a nickname others call me," he said, eyes narrowing as well. They met each other with glares, shadows against metal. Who would win here? "The real name's Drake." _Drake, now that's a bit better,_ she thought icily. "What's your name, meat?" he asked.

Danny looked away for a moment, and then looked back. She couldn't think of any new, good nickname for her other than 'Hey, you!' so she shrugged. That would come later, she supposed, maybe if she got more friends here. She scrunched her nose; what if Drake was to be her first friend here? That made her shudder; what a terrible thought! Drake was not the friend type, at least not to Danny. "Danny," she said strongly.

"Power?" asked Drake.

"I should be asking you the same thing," Danny snapped. What's with all the questions?

"Drake, stop hassling the new girl! Leave her alone…go buss around someone else's head!" A girl came over and stood by Danny, angrily glaring at Drake. Drake frowned and shrugged, passing by with a passing glance at Danny. The girl turned, and Danny recognized her as the girl who sat by Bobby in Mr. McCoy's class. "Hi, I'm Kitty," she said with a smile. Her light brown hair was pulled into a high ponytail.

"Danny," Danny smiled, glad to have met a new, happier person than Titanium.

"Well, Danny, ignore Titanium. He's pretty new himself, came last month," Kitty said with a shrug. And then she smiled, and Danny smiled back. She had a nice smile, one that would warm any heart. "They call me Shadow Cat here," she said, "You'll need a nickname!" And at this she looked excitedly around.

"'Shadow Cat'? What's your gift?" Danny asked, curiously wondering if this new girl had a similar power to herself.

Kitty looked back at Danny, her smile disappearing as she thought. "I can walk through walls. Phasing is the fancy name, I suppose." Though, Danny felt a little bit disappointed that Kitty didn't hold a similar power, she was happy that she didn't at the same time. And then Kitty's smile returned and she waved to someone behind Danny. Danny turned and saw Bobby. Bobby was so handsome; Kitty was lucky!

"Hey, Kitty. Hi, Danny, have you settled in?" Bobby said going up the steps to come beside Danny. He looked down at her and grinned, and Danny grinned back.

"Yeah," she said with a shrug.

"Bobby can control ice," Kitty said quickly, "Since we were talking about powers, I just thought I might as well mention Bobby!" When Bobby was around, Kitty seemed to gain a whole new level of happiness. This made Danny happy, too, for if she was around happy people it was easy for her to be happy, too.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, I guess," Bobby said, looking away slightly, as if he were annoyed with Kitty. He was looking for someone else, and Kitty frowned. _Are they a couple?_ Danny thought, watching the disappointment flit across Kitty's face. Danny bit her lip, feeling like she was in between something she didn't want to even begin to be in the middle of. "So, Danny, what's your gift?" Bobby asked, suddenly looking back at her.

Danny stood back from Bobby slightly. She was still getting used to talking so freely about her gift; she wasn't so comfortable about talking with this. She was terrified of her power, and she didn't want to scare anyone else. But they had told her their powers…or Kitty had told Danny of their powers. So surely they couldn't react badly, though theirs wasn't enveloped in darkness. She bit her lip harder, and Bobby noted this little habit. He smiled slightly, and looked away a moment.

"Hey, Danny, if you don't want to talk about it, its okay. I know a lot has been happening with the mutants against the normal humans, and you are probably scarred pretty badly, huh? Don't worry about it, you can tell us when you're ready," Bobby said, looking back at her with a small, encouraging smile. If she didn't say what her power was, he'd find out another way. She not telling only made him more curious about her; she looked like a drowned puppy waiting for the sharks to come up.

"No, no. I can talk about it," Danny took a deep breath and slowly she let it out. She tucked a strand of black, wavy hair behind her ear and straightened her tank-top once more. She looked away a moment, and she could tell Kitty was getting slightly annoyed. Finally, Danny turned back and smiled. "I control shadows," she said.

Silence. _Oh crap, what did I just do? Did I do something wrong? Their just looking at me like I'm crazy! Like I'm the enemy…What did I do? Did I do something wrong? Stop looking at me that way!_ Danny's looked down at her feet, a slight blush rising from her neck. Why were they looking at her that way? It was a normal power, right? To control darkness? She gulped down her fear.

"That's cool," Bobby said, with a smile. Danny let out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding in as Kitty agreed with the same smile. Danny shrugged, blushing once more for a different reason. She looked away, and watched as Kitty wrapped her arm through Bobby's.

"Come on, I bet you're hungry," Kitty said with a smile. "We can go grab something over at the kitchen!" Kitty grabbed Danny's hand and began pulled her and Bobby along with a smile. Bobby looked over at Danny, whose eyes were wide in surprise. Bobby watched Danny as a smile spread long the girl's lips and he could tell she meant well. He would have to talk to Storm about her. Maybe she was wrong about the dream. Danny seemed to be the happiest girl, besides Kitty who was only happy so she could get her family out of her mind.

Then Danny looked over atBobby and smiled at him, and Bobby smiled at her back, still being dragged through the large building to the kitchen. No, she wasn't bad. Storm must have been wrong.

* * *

Danny yawned, walking up the large royal staircase to the second level of the school. Bobby and Kitty had let her go, finally, so that they could go to their next class. Danny didn't have any classes yet, she was still waiting to get them from Ms. Munroe. Danny let out another, forced yawn. Everything that had happened to her had finally caught up and she felt exhausted and she could barely make it up the steps without stumbling on a step.

"Tired?"

Danny spun around, catching herself on the railing before she toppled backward down the steps. There, behind her, stood Drake. He had a wicked smile on his lips, one to mock others with. It was a good smile, but it would only be good for him. "Go away," Danny said, yawning.

He skipped the steps two at a time until he was in front of her. "Hey, I found out what your power is!" he said with a wicked grin. Inside, Danny's dark side was fighting to get out, wanting to get the creep out of her way. He really bothered her to the very core of her soul. She clenched her jaw, and waited for him to guess a power completely unlike hers. "You control darkness and shadows," he said with another immoral grin.

"Wow, you're a mind reader," Danny said, shoving past him with all her might and heading back up the stairs. He kept up with her easily, and she glanced back at him. She grinned and stomped one foot, and suddenly a shadow came up and wrapped around one of his ankle. He tripped and fell forward onto the steps with a shout.

His eyes narrowed and he got up, by this time Danny was at the top of the stairs. She looked back at him and waved at him girlishly, before vanishing around the corners. Suddenly a force was against her and she was thrown against the wall. Danny looked down and then up at the face of Titanium. She scowled and he scowled back. "You do not use your powers against others at this school," he said coldly. Danny smirked.

"What are you talking about? You tripped on your own damn feet."

Drake's hands pressed against the space above her head, and his head was lowered to where it was level with hers. She rolled her eyes and looked away. "I know you used your powers," he said. "My power is inhuman strength. Remember that next time." Drake said, but he didn't move his hands from their spot or move away. Danny looked at him accusingly.

"Fine, fine. I'm sorry, you caught me. It was impulse," she said, looking away once more. She couldn't help it, he smelled so good! She scrunched her nose as if he was the worst thing she had ever smelled. "Do you ever brush your teeth?" He pushed himself off the wall with a smirk, and then he was going down the steps.

"Watch yourself, Danny. Remember: you are the new student, here." And then he was gone, going down the steps. Danny frowned, wondering what he meant by that. She brushed a large clump of hair behind her shoulder, and stuck her tongue out in his direction. So, she'd made friends and an enemy. What was new? She pushed herself from the wall and made her way to her room, all the way down the first hall at the last door.

She opened her door and looked around her small room. It was homey, and her father had helped her make it before he left. Her twin bed was covered with her black-silk comforter and gray sheets and white pillows. Her dresser was filled with her clothes, and pictures hung against the walls. She came over to a picture hanging beside the window facing outside, and looked at the face of Jake. Her fingers traced around his face, and she felt as if she were about to cry. She really did like him, or she had thought she did.

At response to her sadness, the lights flickered in and out, as if the light were fighting off the darkness. Danny looked up at the single fan hanging from her ceiling, and with one raised hand, a shadow encased the lights. The room became slightly darker, but that was enough. Her senses became sharper, and her mind seemed to clear slightly. She shut her eyes, letting her sadness engulf her. She hadn't meant to hurt him. She hadn't meant to send him somewhere where he could never escape. She never meant to kill him. A knock came to her door, frantic and pounding. That's when Danny looked at her clock and it read 5 o'clock. Her eyes widened; how could the time fly by so quickly? She looked around her room; it was a total and complete mess. The blankets on her bed had been ripped off, and drawers lay scattered on the floor, her clothes every where.

She raced around her bed and opened the door right as Logan was about to pound against it once more. She looked at his face and realized it was contorted with a mix of anger and distress. She looked back at her room, and closed the door slightly, poking her head through so that the crowd of students that had gathered behind Logan couldn't see it. She bit her lip. "Can I help you?"

There was a snigger of laughter that rippled through the crowd. What had happened? Had she let the darkness overwhelm her after all? She had thought she had fought it back. She noted that Mr. McCoy was pushing his way through the crowd, along with Ms. Munroe and another man. Bobby was behind the teachers, with Kitty behind him, clutching his hand tight and her eyes wide. "Are you alright?" he asked gruffly, pushing the door open to look into the room. Danny looked into her room, and heard a gasp and mumbling from the group. Danny looked up at Ms. Munroe.

The headmistress of the school turned to the crowd once she was at the door and clapped her hands twice. "Everyone, back to what you had been doing! Go on!" They all left in a rush, some going back to their rooms, and some going down the stairs to do others things. Kitty began pulling Bobby along to the stairs, and he glanced back worriedly at Danny.

Soon, the hall was empty and Ms. Munroe pushed herself and the other teachers into Danny's room. Danny sat on her bed nervously, as Ms. Munroe paced the room. Mr. McCoy was watching Danny curiously, as well as the other teacher which Danny didn't know. Logan was looking at the pictures hanging on the walls. It was quiet. Danny clenched her jaw and bit her lip nervously. _What did I do while I was in that state?_ She wondered fearfully.

Logan turned and pointed to the picture of Jake. "Cute guy. Is he your boyfriend?"

"Logan!" Ms. Munroe was on him in an instant, and the brute of a man quieted down and looked away back at the photos. Danny twitched slightly; she hated awkward moments. "Danny, do you remember what happened?" Ms. Munroe asked, finally facing Danny from the window.

Danny shook her head. "I felt the power rise, but I thought I had control of it. Next thing I knew it was five o'clock and my room was a mess." That was when Danny realized that the lights were still clouded by the shadows, and the teachers followed her gaze to the light. Danny gulped and waved her hand at the light, and the shadows fell back into their places, the room once more becoming light. "Sometimes my power just takes over my whole body. I'm sorry; I didn't know what I did."

"What were you doing before you lost control?" asked Mr. McCoy, who was still watching her.

Danny looked at the giant, blue beast and then shrugged. She put her head in her hands and then ran her fingers through her black, wavy hair. "I was looking at that picture," she pointed to the one that Logan had been looking at earlier. And still all eyes were on her. "So I made a little mistake with my powers before coming here. A big mistake, for a little reason." She looked down at her hands, which were now in her lap. She clenched them in and out of fists.

"What happened?" it was Ms. Munroe, who was suddenly sitting by Danny sincerely. So, Danny told them everything that had happened that night. She didn't look at any of their faces. She told them of how she had dated the boy in the picture, how he had tried to take advantage of her, how she lost herself to her anger, and how she couldn't remember what happened in between of her falling into the darkness and awakening from it.

Silence. There was a lot of that around this school. She bit her lip and still looked at her hands. Ms. Munroe nodded and the teachers stood. Ms. Munroe placed a hand on Danny's shoulders, making her look up. "We'll send someone in here to help you clean up," she said softly, with a light smile, "thank you for telling us, Danny. Its best we know these things." And then they were walking out. Logan took a side-long glance at Danny, and then was out the door as well, closing it behind him. Danny let out a deep breath, and fell back against her bed. She looked from side to side at the mess she had caused. _Maybe I should run away. I really am dangerous._ She shut her eyes tight. _I really am dangerous.

* * *

_

There was a knock on her door and she sat up reluctantly, walking over to the door and opening it. A young man, probably about a year older than she, stood there with his hands tucked into his jeans. His hair was buzzed off, with a thin layer of blonde. He seemed strong, his arms were thick with muscles and beneath his white T-shirt she could tell that there was perhaps a six-pack. He smiled at her. "So you are Dark Child," he said, tilting his head to the side as he inspected the young girl in front of him.

Danny leaned back on her heels, looking up at him. He had to be at least six feet tall. "Danny is my name," she said in annoyance, "Who are you?"

"They call me Boulder," he said, as he stepped into the room. He was wearing worn-out tennis-shoes. But Danny couldn't tear her eyes aware from his six-pack. Finally she looked into his eyes and realized that they were a dark brown, like hers. She blushed slightly and looked away. "And I am the one that Ms. Munroe calls over to pick up a mess a newbie makes," he said. It was kind mockery, and she liked that.

Danny shrugged and pointed at the mess. "This is kind of bad," she said in embarrassment. He nodded, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. He had freckles on his face, and she doubly liked that. It was cute. She smiled when he looked definitely phased by the mess. "So, should we start?" she asked.

Boulder looked over at her with a kind smile. "You, clean? No way, you just sit back and watch the Boulder." Danny rolled her eyes, shaking her head. No way was she going to let a guy clean up her clothes from the ground. He would see her underwear and her other undergarments. That was too embarrassing.

"I don't think so." She began picking up her clothes from the ground and putting them in their designated drawers (which Boulder had placed back into the dresser). She folded each piece of clothing, making sure to keep her undergarments from the sight of the young man. He noticed this and smirked slightly; it was cute, how innocent she was. Boulder left the clothes to her and got side-tracked, and he began looking at the pictures on the wall.

"Is this your boyfriend?"

She looked up as she placed the last clothes from the ground into the drawers. She flushed and quickly stepped in front of the picture, already irritated by how everyone was asking that. He had been her boyfriend, but she didn't want to talk about it. "Was." He looked down at her, a few inches away from him. She moved out of his way and sighed, "Come on, the least you could do is help me with my bed."

He smiled. "Of course." They pulled the sheets tight and wrapped them around the bed, placing them perfectly together. A few times, they fought over how to do the sheets. Finally they ended up pulling down the sheets and comforter like a hotel would put the covers ready for their customer to get into bed. Then came the pillows; which two were feather pillows. He picked one up and scrunched it in, and then pulled it out. He looked at Danny; she was serious. He grinned and suddenly through the pillow at her.

Danny squealed, and looked at Boulder accusingly. She placed the pillow on the bed neatly, and then another pillow hit her, this time in the face. Danny looked at Boulder slyly, and then she threw the pillow back at him. It ended up into a pillow fight (not with the feather pillows, Danny stashed those where they couldn't be thrown). It ended with Danny and Boulder laughing on the floor, pillows scattered on the ground.

"Hey, we are supposed to be cleaning," Danny said, standing and looking at the clock. She frowned in disappointment. As much as she was a flirt, she wanted to have her room clean. She picked up the pillows and placed them on the bed against the head board. Boulder was laughing, and he looked at Danny with the look she recognized as the one Jake had often given her before they had actually become more than friends. But as quick as it had been there, it was gone and he was standing. He ran his hand over his head and looked from the bed, to the dressers, to the pictures, and back at Danny.

"Well…" he started.

"Well…" Danny agreed with a nod.

There was an awkward silence, and then Boulder looked up at her with a shy smile. "You want to go grab something to eat?"


	4. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer:** I do not own X-Men or any of the Marvel characters, and if I did I would be a genius. Which I'm not. So obviously I do not own any of the wonderful characters.  
**Story Title: **X-Men: Dauther of Darkness  
**Category: **Romance/Action/…  
**Rating: **T for Teen  
**Pairings: **N/A Yet  
**Summary:**Danny is awakened by an unsuspecting visitor and taken on a crash course training in the Danger Room.Will she pass, or will she lose control and destroy everything in her path? And what isthis about the teachers distrusting their newest student? Read and find out!

**A/N:** I am pretty proud of this chapter. Its intense, but not that intense. Its sweet, but not that sweet. And its weird. but not--oh, wait...it really is weird. But besides all that, I am pretty proud of this chapter. It was ten pages, so its a bit longer than all the others. Anyways, please read and review. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

**_Chapter Three:_ Too Easy**

Danny had had the best time with Boulder that night. They had gone down to the kitchen when nobody would be there (they were all watching TV and eating) and they sat there talking. Danny had learned a lot about Boulder, like his first name was Caleb, and that he came from Texas. She also learned that he couldn't swim, because every time he got in water that was deeper than where he could stand, he sunk. It was because of his power that this happened; his whole body was almost literally rock-hard, and therefore rock-solid. Danny grimaced when he explained this; she could hardly imagine not being able to swim, because she loved to swim.

And that's when the conversation was brought to the basic topic of the school: mutation. They talked about many things, like powers, relationships, socializing between normal humans, and the disabilities in which their gifts brought. They talked for what seemed like hundreds of hours, when really it was only about three. Soon, the topic changed solely to Danny and her life. Boulder wouldn't let her change the subject to him, he kept it to her. He wanted to know about her old boy-friends, about her family, and friends from a normal school. He found it so interesting that she had lived her life knowing she had a power, but staying with her family. He only said one thing about his past, and that was that he had left when he was about seven years of age and ran away. He said that he hated to be around his mother, his only parent, because she always made sure he didn't do something to endanger himself (like swimming).

Truth was, Danny found Boulder interesting. Or anyone who went to this school, for that matter. Anyone was more interesting than her, but Caleb merely told her that she'd be getting a lot of comments and questions from most of the younger kids. This fazed Danny; was her life really that much better than everyone else's? But their moments passed quickly, and Danny found she liked him more and more. He was just so easy to talk to, and she felt she could talk to him longer than she had that night. But then Logan had come into the kitchen and told them that it was time to get ready to 'hit the hay' as he had put it.

So now Danny was pulling her Victoria's Secret pajamas on and pulling down her sheets a bit more than how Boulder had left it earlier. She smiled slightly as she glanced at her door. Should she lock it? She felt she didn't have a reason to, so silently she turned off the overhead lights and slipped under the covers. The lamp on her bedside table flickered as she knocked into it with her knee, and she cursed. She was weaker in the light, and stronger in the dark. It was the way she had been built, thanks to her power. She rubbed her knee, and glared at the lamp as if it were its fault. She always slept with a light on; she was scared to fall free to her power in her sleep. If there was even a trace of light in the room, she felt strong enough to trust herself and her power. Slowly, tucked her chin above the blankets, keeping them under her chin with a firm grip.

_Time to sleep,_ she thought. She lay there for a long time, waiting for sleep to overcome her. She rolled slightly to the right. And then to the left. _Come on, sleep!_ She tightened her lids shut, and straightened her face seriously. Suddenly a sound came to her from the room, from the shadows of the corners in which the light from the lamp did not touch. Panicked, she found herself sitting up, dark eyes narrowing and her pupils pinpointing the direction it had come from. She was sure that she had heard someone cough. But nothing, or no one, was there. She bit her lip; this was doing nothing to calm her already taught nerves. When she was sure that no one was there, she fell back against her pillow and rolled over from the light. She would not, repeat _would not_ be scared of which she could control.

Finally, after some long moments that were perhaps hours, sleep controlled her and she finally met the sweet darkness of her dreams.

* * *

_Knock._

Danny bit her lip out of habit and rolled over toward the light. Why must the morning come so soon? She opened one dark brown eye and gazed at her clock, looking at the red numbers blinking. She threw the covers over her head in an exhausted moan. It seemed as if she had just fallen asleep, and she felt as if she had not gotten enough rest to get up at _five o'clock in the morning._

_Knock, knock._

Danny flung off her sheets and jumped out of bed, heading toward the door. She opened it a crack and pushed her head out the crack she formed from the door, her brown eyes meeting those of bored, blue ones. Danny realized that she must look terrible, her brown eyes squinting against the light of the hall and her dark brown hair messed because of bed-head. She let out a yawn, rubbing the sleep from one eye.

"Did Ororo tell you I was testing you today?" Logan asked, looking over the girl over with a tight lip. He looked absolutely bored, but absolutely ready for the day. No signs of sleep in his eyes. His hair was combed up in its normal due that flipped upward from the ears, and he was wearing work-out pants that were black and a white T-shirt. He looked ready to go for a run.

Danny shook her head, her eyes wide now. Logan sighed and looked away, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, get ready. Wear something that's easy to run in, and fight in, alright?" Danny nodded and disappeared, shutting the door behind her.

She pulled her wavy hair into a high ponytail, and slipped on work-out pants she had gotten a few months back from Academy's Sports and Outdoors, and threw on a gray T-shirt. She let out a deep breath, looking herself in the mirror. She had tried her best to look better, but that was utterly impossible at five in the morning. She unscrewed the tops to her contact cases and placed the contacts in her eyes. Yes, she wore contacts. She had worn glasses most of her life, but she refused to wear them now that she was able to poke her eye with a finger without flinching. Once she felt the contacts were in and safe, she pulled on socks and running shoes from the small closet beside the door leading into the hall where Logan stood patiently waiting.

Finally she felt ready and came out. Logan was leaning against the wall, rubbing his knuckles. When she shut the door behind her and turned, she felt his cold eyes on her and she froze. The way he was rubbing his knuckles made him look as if he were about to beat her up. He shrugged and started walking down the hall, and without a word Danny followed. When they were going down the steps, Danny finally spoke up. "So, what are we going to do?"

"I'm the one they call when we need to test the persistence of a student's gift, and how long that certain can go before losing control." Danny was silent; was that a bad thing? Did that mean she was hopeless? She pouted. "So, we're going to the Danger Room for some exercises." The Danger Room?

They stepped down from the last step and he made his way toward a rounded wall, and pressed a button in which Danny hadn't noticed before. Her eyes widened as the wall suddenly opened like an elevator's doors, and she stepped inside, following Logan's example as she turned to watch the door close behind her. She could fell the elevator go down, but her heart went up and was beating so quickly that she thought she would surely pass out. It was such a cool elevator; everything was white! The walls, the floor, the ceiling was an off-white, but a white nonetheless! Logan crossed his arms over his strong chest, his eyes never wavering from the door. And then it opened and he stepped into a long hallway which led in two directions, with various doors leading into separate rooms. Logan stiffened slightly, for at the end of one hall was a vault door in which the metal formed an 'x' across it with a glass orb in the center.

"What's that?" Danny asked, but Logan coughed instead and looked away, as if looking at it was too much for him. She frowned; whatever it was, it was too dramatic for even the tough-butt Logan to say anything about it.

He started walking in the opposite direction, and Danny followed suit, keeping step behind him. Finally he stopped at a side door and pointed to it, "Go in," were his only words and then he turned and stepped into another door beside it. Danny shrugged and stepped into the large, domed-shaped room. _How can such a domed building lay under a school?_, she thought in awe as she turned around and around in space, looking up at the tiled, dome ceiling and the tiled ground. No windows, just dome. She gulped. There were no shadows, just light. She felt weaker than she had ever felt before. _So, how am I supposed to train here? I can hardly work in here!_

Suddenly, Logan's voice came over a hidden intercom. "We'll start you on level one, alright?" He didn't say her name, just 'alright' and that was all? Suddenly the tiles on the dome seemed to turn around into night-sky scenery, and the tiles below dissipated into the form of grass, mud, rocks, and rubbles. Broken buildings appeared at her left side, and then turned over automobiles in front of her, open space behind her, and at her right flames. Danny's eyes widened and the only thought that came to mind was: _No 'good luck'?_

Suddenly, a loud '_kaboom_!' brought Danny back to the present, and her circumstance. She was standing in the middle of who-knows-where, and she was supposed to train. But how, what was the point? Suddenly there was a whirring behind her, and Danny gulped. That was not the whirring of your average computer. She turned slowly and screamed at what she saw. But then she erupted into laughter, the scream evaporating on the dim air. A tiny robot stood in front of her six legs on both sides and its body looked of one of an insect, with antennae off of its head. It tilted its head left and right, studying her, but Danny just kept laughing. She turned around and looked at the sky, hoping Logan could hear her, "This is the amazing training? This is just a bug. You need an exterminator in here, not a mutant!" And her laughing soon subsided into light giggles when she turned around and saw not one, but twenty of them. The first one she saw was standing in front, and for a moment it was still. And her laughing stopped, and she sighed. "Okay, this is not as funny as I thought." She sighed again, but then she lost her air as suddenly the first insect she had seen jumped at her, tackling her to the ground. She let out a yelp of surprise as she found herself lying on the ground, bugs crawling over. She hated bugs, as much as she hated to admit it.

And then the bugs came back over her, touching her, knocking into her, poking her with their antennae. Danny couldn't handle it! She screamed and whipped her arms forward, making a shield over her face, and shadows followed in pursuit, following the example of her arms and blocking her entire body in shadow. And then she lashed her arms back to the side and the bugs that had managed to crawl onto her shadow shield were blasted off, and the shadow shield disappeared.

Danny jumped up, and looked around at the pests that surrounded her. "Looks like I'm the exterminator." She grinned and suddenly clapped her hands together with such force that a wall of shadow erupted in front of her, shooting toward the bugs like a wave. It knocked into the center of the pests, knocking the ones in its way to the side. Danny smirked and then separated her hands, making her hands into fists, and she threw her arms to her sides and the gigantic wall split and burst to the sides as if it truly were a wave, and it swept over the robots. Danny made her fingers look like claws facing the sky in front of her, and she pulled her fingers into a fist and pulled her hands into her sides and the shadows disappeared back into the ground. She looked up at the night sky; her element, darkness. She was stronger in darkness. She smirked. _Too easy._ Half of them were already gone.

She shook her head, placing a wisp of brown hair behind her ear. Suddenly something grabbed onto her back, and she let out a screech of surprise as six, clawed robot claws grabbed her back and around her middle in an electric hug. The shocks waved up and down her spine. Danny snarled and tried to pull the terrible pest off her back, but it clung to her like a baby to its mother. She let out another scream, and the shadows around her reacted instantly, shuddering to her command. She raised one arm and a wave of shadow erupted from the ground, and surrounded the robot insect, and then with her other hand another wave of shadow exploded from the ground and surrounded the bug. She screamed at the strength it took from her to pull it off, but finally she lowered her arms as if she were actually pulling around a large weight in her arms, and the bug split into two, whirring pieces. Danny let out an exhausted gasp, loving the sudden peace that seemed to have overcome the area around her.

Then more whirring. Danny snarled at the bugs in front of her. "Another level," said a voice out of nowhere, and she recognized it as Logan's. _Level two_, she thought, _bring it_. She put her feet in the horse position, fixing her feet sturdily onto the ground as she eyed the bugs. She noted that these were noticeably larger than the first, and these came to her knees. She smirked. _Better to squish you,_ she thought. Once more she clapped her hands together and a shadow wall came from the ground, knocking into the insects that marked its path. Danny was soon overcome by the bugs, however, and she let out a gasp as she felt the bugs try to climb up her legs. She was still in her horse stance, and her arms came to her side, fists ear-level. She let out a scream and moved her fists in a swift, hard movement to her hip-level and shadows enveloped the larger, more frightening pests, dragging them into the ground. Danny let out a gasp of air, that move had taken a lot from her. She fell backwards onto the ground, rolling her head to the side.

"Not finished yet," said the voice once more and one of the insects that had survived the attack suddenly appeared above her. Danny let out another yelp of surprise as she felt its weight on top of her. She panicked, and suddenly placed her palms onto the mud. She shut her eyes, and suddenly felt her body sinking. _I'm sinking into the mud!_, she thought. But when she opened one eye, she found that she was not sinking into the mud, but into a _shadow_!

For a moment, she struggled, but then she relaxed and fell right through the portal-like shadow. She found herself in darkness, and found that she could see in it. Had this been where she had put Jake? For a moment she was hopeful; maybe she could find him and bring him home safe! But then she remembered that would have to wait, she had to finish this up first. She placed her hands on an invisible ceiling a few feet away and found herself lifting back from the shadows, back into the familiar scene of a destroyed town. Danny grinned; a new move, great! Danny raised one hand toward the unsuspecting robot, which seemed to be searching for Danny in the area in which she had just been. Her hand was a clenched fist, and she had only done this move when she had lost control, but she believed that she could control it now. She shut her eyes, feeling the power build inside her. And then she opened her hand and a black hole lay in the center of her palm. It blinked in and out, and suddenly a beam of darkness, similar to the one in which had tried to hit Jake that first night it all began, hit the bug and caused it to fall into a black hole in which opened in front of it in the hole.

Silence and peace engulfed Danny. And so it went, level after level. Danny was getting out of breath, and she didn't know how this was helping. She was just getting sweaty and exhausted. She didn't feel stronger, and she definitely didn't feel as confident as she had to begin with. With each passing level, it got harder and harder, and the robots got bigger and bigger. She was getting over-loaded, and she could feel it. But she clenched her jaw and continued without complaint. No way was she going to feed that to Logan. She wasn't aware, though, that now it was not only Logan who was watching.

Level seven. Danny lay on the ground once more, her fingers running through her muddy hair, her eyes closed tightly and her breath coming out in short gasps. _This…is…hell,_ she thought.

_Shudder._

Danny opened one eye slowly, watching the sky. It seemed like she had been in this room for hours, and yet it was still dark out in this place. She closed the eye once more. She had imagined it; Logan must still be changing levels.

_Shudder, bang._

Danny opened one eye once more, her jaw clenched tightly, one hand covering her face and the other one her stomach, trying to calm her breathing. She must be imagining, or had the ground really just shook? Danny lay still for a moment, trying to come to terms with the new sensation of something behind her.

_Shudder, whirr, shudder, bang, shudder, whirr._

Danny stiffened. _Please, oh please, oh please: no._ She sat up very slowly, shutting her eyes tightly. Sitting up, her hands on her knees, she turned herself around very, very slowly. So slowly that it was like in the movies, when something dramatic happens and the main characters turns in slow-motion to see it. Danny screamed, terrified. A large, very large, robot stood in front of her. It was about the size of a house, but it was a gigantic spider. She hated spiders. How could Logan know this about her? Danny jumped up, and out of reflex swung her right arm in a sweeping motion, hitting the large robot across the face with a shadow. Danny started running.

_They're trying to kill me,_ Danny thought as she felt the earth quake beneath her as the robot followed in pursuit. Danny turned sharply and jumped behind a turned over car. She let out a deep breath. "It's just a game," she told herself, "Get your head in the game, Danny." She let out another deep breath, and then inhaled once more. She let it out and nodded. "Ready." She jumped up onto the automobile, but the spider was nowhere to be found. Her shoulders slumped in disappointment; she had thought herself ready to take that bugger on.

Suddenly something hit her from behind and she fell face first into the mud. She picked herself up, sputtering out mud and coughing hard. She felt sticky and gross, and felt in need of a shower. She shook her head, partly dazed. She turned her head and glared at the beast of a robot. She spun around and swept her hands out in front of herself, before throwing them to her sides. A shadow came out of nowhere, slicing the robot into two pieces. Danny pouted. "That was easy," she said softly. But then the robot was still whirring. Danny came closer, looking at the robot in confusion. Suddenly its wires swept out and connected once more, pulling itself back together. Danny's eye twitched. "You're joking."

She started running once more, and it seemed that the robot had gotten faster and it kept up with her, bowling her right over. She fell to her stomach as it passed over her, and then it spun around and she rolled out of the way, barely missing a pointed foot. Danny was startled by the fact that it seemed stronger now, and knew how to track her down. It was like a living predator, and it seemed to learn as it went along. Danny got up steadily and got into her horse stance, narrowly missing a sharp dagger of a foot. She clapped her hands together once more, her favorite attack, and a wall shot up from underneath the robot cutting it in half the other way, from side to side this time. The robot stopped whirring and Danny waited for the next level, a grin on her face. But then it started whirring, and the wires connected once more and the robot stood up. So it went on, she'd defeat it, and it would bring itself back to life.

Danny hit the mud hard, and she coughed up the gross, watery dirt. She was so irritated, she felt she would cry. She felt something sharp poke into her back, and Danny let out a swish of air as all of it left her stomach. She shut her eyes tight, fighting back the tears. She had started to hate this long ago. Pictures of the battle flashed behind her mind, and every image made her angrier and angrier.

Suddenly the sky darkened in the dome, and Logan's eyes narrowed. He looked down at the weather meter. He hadn't changed it to raining, so why was it getting cloudy? He looked back at the crowd behind him, but they were too transfixed on the battle. Logan's eyes returned to the battle, watching as Danny's eyes suddenly began to glow a fierce blackness, black enveloping the white of her eyes. It was strange, seeing darkness glow. But there it was, like fire shining from her eyes. Logan's heart rate sped up. Was she losing control?

Danny felt herself losing to it once more, but this time she welcomed it. She had had enough taste of mud to last her for the day. She slammed her fists into the mud and a wave of shadow enveloped her, and then exploded, making the robot stumbled backward. Danny lifted from the ground, controlled by the daughter of shadow. Danny looked to be walking on a thin line of air, but she was walking on a thin line of shadow, every step made it ripple like water at her feet. Shadow spread along the ground she walked on, enveloping everything it touched. Danny was no longer afraid of the robot, and instead reached out to touch it. Her palm began glowing as she touched the cool metal, and she smirked. "This is over."

Suddenly something tackled her from the side and the scenery around her vanished, replaced by the white of the normal Danger Room. Danny fought with the person on top of her, and she finally shoved him off. She sat up and looked around, and then down at the boy who lay on the ground, looking at her with angered eyes. Titanium. "What was that for?" she snapped, "Why did you interfere?"

Drake stood and held out his hand to her without a word, but she pushed herself up. "You lost control." She turned to see Logan stepping into the room from a side door in which she hadn't noticed before. He was scratching his head in confusion, shaking his head. "I've never seen something like it before," he said off-handedly to himself. Danny frowned and looked back at Titanium. He could have gotten hurt if he had come at the wrong time. He could have been killed. She could have hurt a lot of people.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, frightened now. "What did I do?"

"Nothing, we stopped you in time. Are you telling me you don't remember anything?" Danny shook her head. She didn't remember anything after she lost her ability to see. She had lost herself again. She sighed heavily, running her hand through her ponytail. She looked away.

"I'm sorry." She felt eyes watching her and looked behind Logan to see a group of students, including Bobby and Boulder, watching her from the side-door with wide, amazed eyes. She bit her lip, and looked back at Logan. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Drake asked coldly as he crossed his arms over his chest. "That was amazing."

"I'm dangerous!" Danny snapped, for some reason his admiration made her edgy.

"Don't give yourself that much credit."

She snarled and looked as if she were about to tackle him, when suddenly she stopped. "Why are you even here? Why are all these people here? Mr. Logan, were they watching me?" she asked fearfully.

Logan smirked slightly, rubbing his head once more. "It's my class."

* * *

Danny strutted up the royal staircase, her fingers trailing along the wooden railings to the side. After being asked questions and after being complimented for a few minutes, she had finally gotten out of that wretched basement under the school. Danny still felt exhausted, and though the mud had basically disappeared along with the scene in the Danger Room, she still felt gross and in the need of a good tooth brush. She knocked on the door to the nearest bathroom. She walked in, shut the door, and locked it. She came out an hour later to an angry faced girl who was at first in front of her, and then she appeared in the bathroom, the door closing behind her. _Crazy power,_ she thought.

Danny started walking down the stairs, shaking her head, letting her almost-dry hair fall over her shoulders in damp strands. That shower had felt good, so good that she didn't want to leave the steamy room. But she had to, that girl had been knocking for over thirty minutes. Danny skipped down the stairs, past whispering students. They didn't have school on Saturdays, but Logan's class went on through Saturdays because it was not an academic class. She went past one of the game rooms and paused, watching as Bobby and a few other guys played fuzz-ball. She wasn't very good at the game, but even so she entered the room and looked around. She hadn't been in here before. She looked over at the platinum screen and smiled at the sight of Boulder, or Caleb.

"Hey, Caleb!" Danny said, jumping over the couch back, and falling in seat beside him.

"Hey, Danny. I watched you this morning, I would have said something, but you were pretty busy." He smiled kindly and she smiled back. She set her intertwined fingers on her lap and looked at the TV. It was set on the news. "How are you? You looked pretty beat earlier."

Danny shrugged, watching as the newscaster began to talk about a stream of bank robberies said to be committed by a gang of mutants. "Nice to have the taste of mud out of my mouth," she said with a grin as she looked over at him. He chuckled; oh, his laugh was so nice. It made her laugh, as well.

"Yeah, I bet!" he said with a nonchalant smile as his gaze returned to the TV, "I still can't believe that Drake jumped into the room with you."

"What? I thought Logan told him to do that," Danny said, her gaze drifting from Boulder back toward where Drake stood, his back t Danny, playing fuzz-ball with the others. Bobby had left, and Drake had casually taken his place. _How nice,_ Danny thought dryly.

"Nope," Caleb said through clenched teeth, his gaze still fixed on the TV though he seemed not to be watching any longer. "He just jumped in when Logan said that you were losing control. Logan was yelling the hell out of him when you left." He laughed slightly, "I'm surprised that Drake is down here, I mean, _I_ wouldn't be. _I'd_ be in my room out of embarrassment." Danny bit her lip, wanting to stick up for the creep. It had been a brave thing for him to jump into the Danger Room, when he knew that he could be killed. She'd never admit to that, though…never would, probably.

"I could have hurt him," she said softly. But that was all she said, for she suddenly stood and waved good-bye to him. Something made her want to go to the kitchen, and she found she was hungry. _Well, of course I am, I didn't eat breakfast!_ She passed a grandfather clock and noted it was about one o'clock. She had been training for a long time.

Danny felt eyes on her back, and turned as she walked down that lonely hall. It was an unnerving feeling that made shivers run up and down her spine. Every time she took a few paces forward, she turned because the feeling would get unbearable. Danny paused outside Ms. Munroe's office. Her door was cracked open and Danny couldn't help but pause. She looked both ways before pressing against the wall near the door and tilted her head forward so that she could hear better.

"It was amazing," Logan said.

"Terrifyingly so," added Mr. McCoy.

"She has incredible power," Logan added defensively.

"Put into the wrong hands, she could kill hundreds," Mr. McCoy said quickly. It seemed that they were speaking of Danny. Or arguing.

"And yet she was brought to us," it was Ms. Munroe speaking, "I try to think of what the Professor would do at times like these. What he did with Jean…I would do that to that poor girl if I had the chance. Her fate…I would change it if I could."

Danny covered her mouth, holding in a gasp. _What fate?_

"We need to keep her under lock and key," muttered an unknown voice, "put a sitter on her to make sure she doesn't go off and join the Brotherhood or something. She could hurt many defenseless people!" Danny rolled onto her back, her head facing the cracked door, her hand still over her mouth.

"She doesn't remember anything that happens in her uncontrollable state." That was Logan. Was he trying to stick up for her?

"A sitter does sound like a good idea, Logan," Ms. Munroe again. She sounded doubtful and a little resentful about admitting that fact. "Perhaps we should put you as the sitter, since you have taken a liking to her."

There was a long silence, and then Logan said quite darkly, "I don't baby-sit anymore. I gave that up after Ro—Marie." There was a long silence, and then someone must have realized the door was cracked and they shut it. After that, the voices were muffled. Danny bit her lip. Who was this Marie? And why did Danny need a sitter? She was quite fine on her own; she could take care of herself!

Suddenly, someone grabbed her around her waist and a hand went over her mouth, clasping her hand (which was still placed over her gaping mouth) harder against her mouth. She was pulled back into the shadows with a muffled scream of help.


	5. Chapter Four

**Disclaimer:** I do not own X-Men or any of the Marvel characters, and if I did I would be a genius. Which I'm not. So obviously I do not own any of the wonderful characters.  
**Story Title: **X-Men: Dauther of Darkness  
**Category: **Romance/Action/…  
**Rating: **T for Teen  
**Pairings: **N/A Yet  
**Summary:** Danny finds the most unusual emotions, in the most unusual people. And why does she always feel like someone is watching her, constantly?

**A/N:** Sorry it took longer than usual to update. I tried to make it nice and long as a make-up to some people whom were waiting. Anyways, there is a little bit of un-intended Logan/Danny fluff. It's not romantic crap, just a bit of fluff between the two. Friendly fluff. -grins- Don't hurt me. Anyways, sorry again it took longer than normal, and sorry if its a bit sketchy. It is one fifteen in the morning, exactly. Stupid sister won't make her friends leave -yawns- anyways, here's the fourth chapter! Whoo! Review, please! Solar Beam

* * *

**_Chapter Four:_** **Kid**

Danny fought against the person who held her. She was pressed against a wall in a corner which she didn't even know was there, and one of her attacker's hands was over her hand which was over her mouth, and the other was across her waist, holding her still with pressure. Danny shook her head back and forth, trying to get the hand away, and she wiggled her waist, trying to get that free as well. She hated the feeling of someone…or some_thing_…pushing her against a wall. She opened her eyes, which she had closed out of instinct, and stared into the calm, brown eyes of her captor. Danny's eyes widened as she recognized the face and hair, and when he was sure that she wouldn't say a word he released his hand.

Danny coughed as he removed his hand, and she removed hers as well. She kept a narrowed eye on him as she popped her knuckles (he had been pressing so hard she had thought her hand would break). "What did you do that for?" She was faintly aware of his now free hand sliding down her left arm to grasp her wrist, and his other hand grasped her other wrist and she was shoved back into the wall.

"You shouldn't be eavesdropping," Drake snapped, "and on the teachers!" He was mocking her in the strangest way, and Danny had almost had enough of it. She glared at him, and he just smirked in return.

Danny shoved him off, and she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked away, and then something struck her. "What are you doing here anyways, Drake?" she asked. She studied his face, trying to find something to strike him. Anything to explain his sudden appearance.

"I was heading to the kitchen." He shrugged, "and then I saw little Miss Danny Hutchinson heading in the same direction, when suddenly she stopped by the headmistress's office to listen in on a conversation that happened to of herself. What are you, a mind-reader as well?" He smirked at Danny's surprised look. He crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes bright and mocking.

Danny didn't know what to say. Was it coincidence that he had followed her? That he had seen her? Was it coincidence that he knew the conversation was about her? Danny bit her lip, she knew she was caught. She looked away and suddenly the door opened and her eyes opened. They weren't hidden that great, for what Danny had thought was a large, shadows corner was just a small corner lit by a lamp. She had thought it dark because she had been clouded in shock of being grabbed, and she thought it large because she had been pressed against it. But no, it was small and anyone who passed could easily see them. Danny's eyes widened in panic and she was getting ready to run when suddenly she felt someone press against her and she was about to punch him, but something stopped her. He placed one finger gently against her lips to keep her quiet, and he shut his eyes tight. Danny held her breath as she watched as Logan and that other male teacher walk by them, and even though Logan turned his head toward them, he did not give a signal that he had seen them and he walked by. If Danny had not been touching Titanium, she would have been seen, but one of Drake's powers was invisibility.

Danny's eyes widened but he still pressed against her, his eyes tightly shut. She watched Logan and the other teacher pass, and then her eyes traveled from Drake's neck (because that's where her height came to on him) to his face. She looked at him with new curiosity, wondering what he had done. Drake nodded, his eyes still shut tight, and he stepped back from her. Air filled the vacuum of space that came between the two, and Danny felt strangely empty without him right in front of her.

He stepped back and opened his eyes. He grinned, a real grin not a mocking one, and said, "Sorry about that, we would have been seen if I hadn't. See, one of my two powers is invisibility." Danny nodded, despite her curiosity to his second gift. And then something came to her mind, and she narrowed her eyes once more.

"You were eavesdropping on _me_…weren't you?"

Drake was silent and he looked away. So what if he was curious about her? What was so bad about that? Besides, she was in danger around _him_. And despite her hard-headedness, he knew that she knew that. He just didn't trust her alone with him. He looked back at her silently, studying her dark brown eyes. He had to watch what he was to say to her, he didn't want to ruin anything. He knew she saw him as a punk, but he saw her as a strong person so it mattered not to him. He sighed and looked away. "No, I saw you eavesdropping on the teachers, so I stopped and turned invisible to see what interested you so. I just so happened to hear them talking about someone, and by your reaction I guessed it was of you."

Danny knew he was lying. _The scoundrel,_ she thought dryly. She shoved past him without another word, walking at a sturdy pace toward the kitchen. She wasn't stupid; she was hungry and had been for hours. She wasn't going to stop herself from eating. She was stubborn about that topic. Danny heard his footsteps behind her, and rolled her eyes. She came into the kitchen; it was empty besides a little boy of about eleven years of age, sitting in the corner blinking his eyes at the TV screen, changing the channel with the blink of an eye—literally.

Danny came to the refrigerator, and looked inside. The cool breeze hit her, and she smiled slightly. If she had the choice, she'd jump in the fridge…but she didn't and besides, it was too full to fit. She pulled out a bowl of grapes and a Dr. Pepper and then sat at the counter. As she had predicted, Drake followed her in pursuit, grabbing a beer and sitting at her side. Danny looked at the beer, and then at him.

"Umm, a beer?" she asked.

"Umm, a Dr. Pepper?" he snapped in return. He took a swig of the beer as if to prove an unseen point, and Danny followed the pattern and took a mouthful of her Dr. Pepper, glaring at him all the while. Drake smiled and then took a few grapes from the bowl, but Danny slapped his hand and the grapes fell back into the bowl. She glared at him and he rubbed his hand, "Hey, what was that for?"

"For being a creep," she grumbled as she plopped a few more grapes into her mouth. She heard him mutter something under his breath, and she rolled her eyes. Guys were so immature.

At that Mr. Logan came waltzing, more like strutting, into the kitchen. He had begun to reach into the fridge when something caught his eye. He spun around and grabbed the beer from Drake right as he had began to pull it in for another swig. Instead, Logan was the one taking the sip from the beer bottle and he eyes Drake nosily. "No beer for the minors," he snapped, "the beer is for me." He then pointed the index finger of the hand that held the bottle at Drake and snarled. Drake raised his hands and shrugged innocently.

Danny watched this little show in front of her and suddenly felt a force plop beside her. She then saw one, large, rough hand reach for the grapes but instead of slapping it she let it pass. It was, in fact, Logan reaching for the grapes. She was terrified of Logan; she didn't know what his power was and didn't want to push him. He just seemed like the kind of guy that would be ticked off easily. Drake grinned, taking this as a signal to reach for the grapes as well and as he reached in she slapped his hand once more, harder. He rubbed his hands.

"Why doesn't he get a slapped hand?" he asked narrowly.

_Because he is fuggin' scary! _"Because he's not a creep," she said with a shrug, and glanced over at Logan, who was smirking down at the grapes in his hand. She looked back at Drake with light mock shining in her brown eyes. And then she grinned and took a little sip of her Dr. Pepper. It was quiet; she could feel herself suffocating between these two. Unconsciously her mind was dragged back to the conversation between the staff members of the school, and remembered that Ms. Ororo had mentioned Logan "babysitting" Danny. Was that why he was here; to keep an eye on her? She bit her lip and was brought back to the present, and realized Drake was talking.

"Well, I guess I'm going to head back to the dorms then." He stood and as if he wanted to add something more, he hesitated before leaving. He looked, actually, sincere as he watched Danny in front of him. She had been drawn into thought, and he had an idea about what it was about, but wasn't going to say anything for her sake. "See you later, Danny," he said softly and then he nodded to Logan before he turned and walked away, popping a few grapes he had managed to steal while she was in thought into his mouth.

Once more it was quiet as Logan took another mouthful of beer. He shook his head as if the beer tasted disgusting, and then looked over to the small girl beside him. His mind was drawn back to Marie, poor little Marie who had chosen to take the Cure. Suddenly, out of reflex of thinking of that wretched thing, he said, "So what's your view on that Cure?"

Danny jumped at the sudden noise, and looked over at him curiously. First sentence, the first _real_ sentence he had ever spoken to her besides the few questions before that. She hadn't expected such a silly question, the Cure? What a harsh subject. _Something must have happened to him to keep that in his mind…_ She sighed heavily and shrugged, taking another sip of Dr. Pepper. She rubbed her temples a few times and then looked back at him silently. "I don't have any big time perspectives on it. I mean, I suppose it's like turning your back on your people if you do take it," she could tell he stiffened, but she made no rush to change what she said, "but, honestly, it all matters on if it's what you want. If it's a terrible power where it just stops you from doing things you love, then I suppose it's alright. I mean honestly, if it's what they have to do then it's what they have to do." She shrugged again and he seemed to relax on this.

"That's a good standpoint, I would say, kid," he said gruffly. He fingered the bottle a moment, and then sighed. He glanced back at her to the side, and narrowed his eyes slightly. He kind of saw her in that kid beside him. Well, it was his job now, to watch over her. He hadn't promised her his absolute protection like he had Marie, but he would do it anyways. How bad could it be? She seemed strong enough to take care of herself, anyways. He'd probably just be babysitter to the little twerp.

Danny nodded, not wanting to ask him the same. She stood slowly, her eyes downcast. "I think I'm going to head back to the dorms," she said softly. She saw that he nodded and she placed the grapes back into the refrigerator and headed up the stairs. She passed tons of people but she didn't register them at all. She was fairly aware of someone following her, but as said before, she never registered. She felt completely drained, as if the day had gone to slow but had left her in its dust. She reached her room and entered its darkness, turning on a light. She fell back against the bed, letting out a deep breath of air. She wanted so badly to sleep, and slowly she got up, slipping off her workout pants and slipping on her pajama pants from the night before. As gradually as she had the pants, she took off her shirt and replaced it with a night tank-top.

She took out her contacts, cleaning them and placing them in their cases before slipping on her glasses. She yawned and crawled back into bed, slipping under the sheets. She heard the click of a door and sat up, eyes wide. Nothing was there…no _one_ was there. Her heat beat quickened but she fell back into her pillow and rolled over, falling asleep with the lights on.

* * *

Danny sat up straight, a jolt running through her body as lightning flashed behind her window's blinds. She watched in disturbance as the feeling of being watched never left her. She had had that feeling ever since she had fallen asleep for the fifth time that day, and she didn't like it. She looked up at the lights, long ago put out, and then her eyes traveled to her lamp on her bedside, always on. She stood up as thunder rippled across the sky, and she pulled on a sweater to cover up her pajama top and before she thought twice she was walking down the hall, jumping every once in a while at the sound of thunder. She found that soon she was running down the hall, turning a random corner and then another. Before she knew it, she found herself in front of a glass door. How come she had never seen this before? She sighed heavily and opened the door, stepping outside into the cool night air.

She came out onto a high patio, and she leaned against the black railing. It wasn't raining, it was one of those dry storms where the heat contrasted with the clouds and created electric lightning and the thunder. She loved the humidity of the night, and leaning against the railing, standing on her tiptoes as if she were at an amusement park. The night, sparked by the dry and colorful lightning, felt alive to Danny and made her senses intone with everything around her. Her hearing was honed on everything around her, and her dark brown eyes seemed to glow slightly in the night with enhanced sight, and her touch was even more sensitive than before.

And that's how she felt the change in the air, and that's how she heard the socked feet step onto the patio behind her, and that's how she saw his shadow before he even knew that the light from the hall had illuminated it. "Mr. Logan," she said easily, not turning her head to look at him. She fell back on her feet and leaned casually on the rail, her sleeved arms crossed on the rail so it gave her some comfort. She knew he was surprised, he could nearly smell it on the humid air. She set her cheek against her arm and sighed. "You couldn't sleep either?" she asked quietly.

He hesitated, but he found that it was no hiding from her anymore. Somehow, she already knew he was there. Perhaps it was the darkness that honed in on her physical abilities. She definitely looked more at home in the darkness. He found his way to her side and gripped the railing with his rough hands as he leaned back from the rail, watching the lightning that flashed across the cloudy sky. "You could say that," he said crustily. Danny glanced at him, and he felt her eyes. They burned with something that he couldn't place, a power that was more powerful than anything. It was the energy inside of her, burning to be released in the darkness. "What about you, kid? You know it's really late, don't you?"

She shrugged, not knowing what to tell him. Why was she up? She didn't know, and for some reason she didn't really want to tell him. He was her babysitter, right? She had never been too great with babysitters, she had always been immovable around them, and was hard-headed when it came to rules and such. She hated following their rules. She grinned ruefully at him, "I'm more of the…err…night-life kind of girl." She shrugged and leaned back, gripping the railing as she looked back at the glass door leading to the hallway. It was shut, but she had no idea why she had looked back. She still had that feeling that made her hair on her neck stand on end, the inexplicable feeling of being watched.

Logan shook his head at her answer; great, just what he needed. Someone more like him. He sighed heavily and then looked over at her. She was looking behind them at the door, and he turned to see what she was looking at. "What's the matter, kid?" he asked, already getting used to calling her his original nickname for Marie. It was like he was replacing her. Then again, he hadn't seen her in about three months or so. "You see something?" He didn't know what was up with her senses, but he did know that she could see extremely well.

Danny shook her head and returned to leaning against the wall, lifting one bare foot and crossing the ankles casually behind her. She tilted her head back to gaze at the blue lightning. When the light hit her face, Logan noted how her eyes dimmed slightly as if weakened. "Nothing, sorry…" she said softly. Why had she sorry? She leaned her chin on her crossed arms and sighed. "It's just…" she stumbled on her words, not quite sure why she was telling him in the first place, "ever sense I got here I've felt like I've been watched." _Other than by the teachers, of course._ She sighed and buried her forehead in her arms for a moment. She lifted her head and sighed again. She hated the very thought of being watched, but now it seemed to drift away and the feeling became less strong.

Logan was silent, but she felt his eyes on her and she turned her head so that her cheek pressed against her arm instead and she looked at him with a hard stare. He felt himself stiffen under those brown, glowing eyes. _So even he is scared of me,_ Danny thought icily. She looked past the trees and at the horizon, watching the lightning dance around. Logan looked over at her, she was silent. Was she always silent? Like him? Just a silent little girl with no where else to go? And then her eyes were back on him and he looked away, his eyes not really watching the lightning.

Finally she spoke up, her voice slightly cold, "Why are you really here, Mr. Logan? I mean, I know you don't sleep well at night; I hear you sometimes. But then, you know, you never get out of bed or leave. So, seriously, why are you out here? How did you know I was out here?" Her voice was flat and knowing, and that bothered Logan. What bothered him most was what she called him: Mr. Logan. That bothered him for some reason, and more than anything he wanted his Marie back… to call him just plain Logan.

"First of all, call me Logan; Mr. Logan just sounds too official. Second, how do you know that I came out her because you were out here?" he snapped, and then he studied her face. He was pretty good at reading faces, but hers was pretty locked up—like most of the adults here at the Xavier school. She was quiet, not looking at him, but playing with something. He looked closer and noted that she was fiddling with a shadow; making it a stream and making it float around her finger. She made it swirl around index finger, and made it move around like a snake in the air. She looked a little…put-off…especially beside him. Something was bothering her. He sighed heavily, having an idea of why she was so quiet all of the sudden. "You actually walked by my room, if you didn't know that. I heard you outside, and…well, let's just say I recognized you."

She looked at him now, her eyes red underneath as if she were crying. He knew she was not. "So…what? You recognized me by my scent or something? And why follow me, huh? You could've just let me go." And she clenched her fingers into a fist and the shadow fell away. She rested her cheek against her arm and looked at the sky, longing for her mother to stroke her hair and tickle her head. She longed to be comforted by her parents. Parents led to friends, who led to boys, who led to boyfriends and her eyes widened slightly, remembering what she had wanted to do during her training in the Danger Room. She had wanted to try that new skill, the one going into the shadow world she had found. Logan noted the sudden look of excitement on her face, and wondered what had gotten her so up. But whatever, it was gone as quick as it had come, disappearing behind its mask.

"You could say that I smelled you, kid. You could say that." He looked away and ran a hand through his roughed up hair, which wasn't in its normal due. He was looking away, but she saw the small hint of a smirk on his lips. She grumbled something under her breath and looked up at the sky. The storm was going away; you could tell by the way the lightning was thinning out and the thunder quieting down. "And about choosing to follow you," he started, running a hand through his gruff hair once more, "you're right. I could have let you go. But I chose not to…I wasn't about to risk you running out on the school your parents took the time to sign you up for. Most of the kids here, Danny, they…they ran away from home. They ran away from what they had to come here so they could be away from _them_." He looked at her hard now, "And if you were planning to run out on something that all those other kids had to fight for…I…" he stumbled on his words and shook his head. He had never admitted his connection with the school before, and he felt awkward just talking about it. "Dan, I don't know what I would have done. Hunted you down and drag you back, most likely. That's what I did for her." He sighed, realizing he had called her 'Dan' and realized that he had mentioned Marie in front of her.

But Danny kind of liked the new nickname…it was much better than 'kid'. She also realized that he had mentioned that girl, that girl in which everyone knew but for some reason didn't want to talk about. "So, who is Marie?" she asked calmly, looking back at him as she turned now to lean back against the railing, her back pressing comfortable against the black metal with her arms crossed across her chest. "…Log..." she added, giving him a sneer and a new nickname.

He grimaced, "Just 'Logan'," he said, snarling slightly. Danny just looked away with a wry smile. She noted that he had taken a gulp of air as if it were tough to talk on. "Rogue was her mutant name. Rogue was…an amazing young woman. Ran away from home young, and I met her by chance at a bar in Canada. She had hid in a trailer from my car, and I found her and let her hitch-hike with me. She was so crude and stubborn," he smiled at the memory of seeing this young, stubborn teenager in his front seat watching his knuckles in interest. "Her power was hard to cope with. Her skin was poison, and sucked life from humans and mutants alike—and it stole the powers of mutants. She wore gloves constantly; it was kind of hard because she had to cope with her boyfriend and all."

Danny looked up in curiosity. Seeing her curious stare, he shrugged. "I would've guessed he wouldn't want to tell you about it, they broke up at least two months ago," he seemed reluctant to even talk about it, "Her ex- was good old Icicle." When she still looked clueless, Logan let out a moan, "Iceman…Bobby?" Still no trigger and he smacked his forehead. That lack of sleep was catching up to the girl, he could tell, "Bobby was Ro—Marie's boyfriend!"

"Oh," Danny let the word trail off slowly as it hit her. _But then…_ "Bobby sure did move on quickly, didn't he?" Logan smirked and nodded sadly, and then he continued with his story.

"Anyways, Rogue had been the target for a major mutant's plan to take over the human race or something like that. She was forced to suck the power from him, and see, he controls all that is metal. She aged quickly, nearly died on me. I had promised to protect her," his hands tightened into fists on the railing and he shook his head, "She left a few months ago. Right before the major attack."

She nodded, she had heard of a major battle somewhere in New York City, she had watched the damage on the News. She remembered her parents hugging her desperately as if the mutants would come steal her away. He continued. "She went to get the cure. Bobby left her shortly after that, and then she lost it and left." He sighed heavily, lowering his forehead to his hands on the railing. "I should have been there for her."

Danny hesitated before placing a tentative hand on his shoulder. He looked over slightly, and she smiled sadly. "She did what she had to do," she said softly, going back to the conversation that they had had earlier in the kitchen and to what she had said. "Her power sounded rough, Logan…and it sounds like you were there for her. It's not your fault…at all. "

Logan looked at her darkly, as if just realizing that he had shown his feelings out loud and he pushed himself from the railing, shoving his fists into his pockets. "Time for bed, kid."

"Whatever happened to calling me 'Dan'?" she asked, putting on a mock pout set across her lips.

He shrugged and shuffled her back inside. He reached his door and leaned against the panel, watching her scuff her feet in front of him. She wanted to say something. "I just…" she started, paused, and then looked down at the ground, "I just wanted to thank you, after all, for coming out after me. It was…interesting." And then she lit up her face with one of those smiles of hers that she used at the boys at her old school, the boys who were just friends. She shrugged and walked away, not looking back. She waved one hand behind her, the other hand in her sweater pocket. "'Night, Log," she called, using her temporary nickname for him. She just barely heard him, but she definitely heard him say, "Good night, kid."

Danny lay in bed, glancing at her clock. One fifteen in the morning, not the best hours for her. She let loose a yawn and turned off her over-head lights as she snuggled into bed, a small smile on her face as sleep finally overcame her, and this time, it was the fitting sleep for a queen.


	6. Chapter Five

**Disclaimer: **Let us go through this once more: I do not own any of the Marvel characters or any of the X-Men themes.  
**Story Title: **X-Men: Dauther of Darkness  
**Category: **Romance/Action/…  
**Rating: **T for Teen  
**Pairings: **N/A Yet  
**Summary:** Danny had a nice night with Logan, but now what does she find when she wakes up? A new student with a major attitude! 

**A/N:** I just wanted to thank everyone who has reviewed so far: ll, superchick09,Imaybedelusionalbutit'sfun, Athene Saile, and Inu. Your reviews make me feel all fluffy inside! Anyways, just a heads up on this chapter: There is light fluff between Danny and another character! Plus there are some cussies here or there, so you know, T for Teen and I mean that literally. I think I accidentally put Kitty out of character...does anybody know if she really _is_ preppy? I mean...I used to watch that X-Men:Evolution show and she always seemed pretty preppy there. Oh well, you guys know the drill: Please review! Enjoy!

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**_Chapter Five:_ River**

Danny shuddered. Why was it so cold? She searched for her blankets to pull up around, but they were nowhere to be found. Suddenly she jerked awake, her eyes snapping open and she looked around frantically. But she was in her little room, on her bed with light shining through the blinds covering her window. It was morning. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, and what a morning. It had come too soon. She looked down to see the blankets draped across the floor in a messy heap.

Danny yawned and ran a hand through her matted hair, throwing her feet over the side of the bed. Her eyes immediately traveled to her alarm clock and she nearly choked on the time; it was nearly eleven o'clock in the afternoon! Danny stood on shaky legs and found that the cold of her room was too much for her bones and she tipped over instead. Danny shook her head, standing and running to her dresser. She looked in the mirror and moaned; her hair was in a mess of tangles. "It'll take hours!" She instantly began dragging her brush into her hair with one hand, while with the other she grabbed some pants and with some effort managed to get them on. She tugged on her brush, and realized it was stuck. "Damn wavy hair!" she snapped as she tugged with two hands at the brush. At last it pulled out and she managed to comb her hair without wrecking the brush. She pulled on a black, baggy shirt—which was rare for her, but she was in no calm mood to get cute—and pulled on a random pair of pants. She swiftly pulled her hair into a high ponytail and almost literally threw her contacts into her eyes. She blinked a few times, and then threw on a pair of converse.

She knew she looked different like this, but what the hell? It was eleven in the morning and she wasn't the kind of person who normally slept in. She yanked open the door, her toothbrush and toothpaste in hand as she raced down the hall. To her utter relief the nearest bathroom was open and she rushed in, locking it behind her as she brushed her teeth rapidly. She opened the door and nearly toppled down the stairs and right into Caleb. He grabbed her firmly around the waist as she tipped down the last two steps. He laughed. "Good morning, Danny," he said with a smile. He held her for a moment, before placing her on the ground. That's when she realized he had been holding her up off the ground at least a few feet.

"'Good Morning'?" she said in surprise, "it's more like 'Good afternoon'!" She rubbed the back of her head with a flirtatious smile, "Good thing you were here to catch me, eh?"

He just merely chuckled, shaking his head. And then he stopped and turned his head as Ms. Munroe turned the corner with a red-headed girl beside her and next to the girl walked Logan. He glanced at Danny and Caleb for a moment with narrowed eyes, taking in Danny's outfit in suspicion before Ms. Munroe turned another corner. The red-headed girl paused and followed Logan's gaze to Caleb and Danny, and a smirk fell on her maroon-colored lips. That's when Danny noticed that the girl was completely wicked; she was wearing a black tank-top that bared a large space of her mid-drift with two dog-tags dangling from her neck and a black tattoo on her left arm. She was wearing a black mini-skirt that looked like a ballerina's too-too with the white petticoat beneath it, except there were gray sculls on the skirt and red and orange strings encircled around her waist pinned with a silver skull pin. She was wearing net tights and knee-length, black boots. Taking all this in, Danny almost missed the large, black wings protruding from the girl's pale back as she turned. The wings had to be about thirteen feet long when spread out!

"A new student," Caleb said quietly, watching as Logan shut the door behind them, "with an attitude, no doubt. Did you see how many earrings she had in her ears?" He shook his head and then wrapped an arm around Danny's shoulder, leading her toward one of the kitchens. "I bet you're hungry," he commented.

Danny shrugged, a light blush rising into her cheeks at the feel of his arm draped over her shoulders. "Yeah, kind of." She smiled up at him and he returned the smile, before pushing the door open and coming into an empty kitchen. Danny frowned; where was the crowd? As if reading her mind, Caleb said, "Its Sunday…nobody eats on Sundays around here." She went to the fridge and looked in with light disappointment; frozen pizza or a poor excuse of a sandwich? She pulled out the frozen pizza and stuck it into one of the microwaves.

She turned to see Caleb watching TV at the table, his feet propped on one of the other chairs. She smiled lightly at his form; he really was handsome. He was wearing a pair of worn-out jeans that were torn at the knees, and he was wearing sandals with a baggy blue shirt. She didn't know why she was so drawn to him. She propped herself up on the counter, waiting for the pizza to defrost. She tilted her head, watching him when his eyes suddenly met hers. He smiled and his eyes fell back to the TV, and Danny let out a quiet sigh. That's when Drake came in and he sat absentmindedly at the counter, his eyes staring past the cupboards on the wall as he fiddled with his black sunglasses.

"Hey, Drake," Danny said with a bored tone, though she would try and be civil with him.

"That new girl's something, isn't she?" Drake said, his voice clouded in thought, "and those wings are amazing. Her eyes are so red…they kind of look into the soul, you know? She's got an attitude…she'll cause some sort of chaos around here."

Danny frowned at his distracted personality. She shrugged. "I kind of like the way she dresses." At this, Caleb looked at her in a bewildered way. Danny shrugged, passing it off. It was a nice was she dressed; it was different, as if she didn't care what people thought of her. It was a cool style; it was individuality.

"I think she looks like nothing but trouble."

Danny gave Caleb a mock-exasperated look. "You are so boring," she joked. And then the microwave dinged and she jumped off the counter, turning and opening the machine, ignoring Drake's snickering. Danny pulled a seat next to Caleb, her nose in the air as she passed Drake. She bit into the pizza, and Caleb looked at her in curiosity.

"You sure can eat, can't you, Dee?" he asked oddly.

Danny stopped mid-bite and looked at him curiously. "Yeah, and so what? I like to eat…" She bit once more into her pizza for emphasis and then smiled, chewed, and swallowed. That's when Kitty and Bobby came in. Kitty sat next to Danny, wrapping her arms around Danny in a slight hug as she did so. _Kitty is so preppy_, Danny thought as Bobby sat next to Kitty.

"Hey, guys!" Bobby said, motioning with a wave to Caleb and Drake—who was still facing the cupboards in thought. He looked curiously at the boy and then looked to Caleb and Danny with a curios look and pointed at Drake with his thumb, mouthing: 'What's with him?'

Danny shrugged. "So, what do you guys have planned for today?" she asked, eating some more of her pepperoni pizza as Kitty slipped her hand to grab a stray piece of pepperoni and eating swiftly. Danny let that pass; Kitty was a friend, one of her first here at the school.

Bobby looked at Kitty curiously, and they both shrugged as they turned to look back at her. "We don't know, whatever comes up, I guess. I want to watch that new girl practice her power. Surely her wings aren't her only gift," Kitty said. Danny glanced over at Caleb but his eyes were looking at Drake.

Danny looked back at Kitty. "So I guess a new student here is always something special, huh?" Kitty nodded, and Bobby looked down at his hands. Danny remembered the talk she had had with Logan the night before, about Marie—or Rogue. Was Bobby ever thinking about her?

"Yeah, new students are usually a big topic here until a few days pass." He looked at Danny cautiously, and then said quietly, "Though it will take a while for people to get over you." Danny's eyes widened, and he continued, "I mean, your power is pretty powerful. I don't think the teachers have seen a gift so powerful since…" his voice shuddered and looked down, and Danny didn't press any further. She sighed and looked at her pizza, before pushing it aside. Immediately Kitty was on the pizza, eating it hungrily. Every eye was on Kitty in an instant, watching wide-eyed as the girl viciously tore at the pizza.

Kitty looked up, a piece of pizza in one hand with pizza hanging from her mouth hungrily. "What? I didn't have breakfast…"

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"I heard that she does have a second power," Drake commented, finally talking once more as they headed toward the back doors of the school. "Like she can read minds or something."

They were headed out to the backyard of the school. They decided to go to the lake instead, so Danny had changed into her black and white polka dot bikini, shorts and T-shirt used as a cover-up. Kitty, Bobby, and Caleb was with them…though Caleb was wearing just a normal pair of shorts and a white T-shirt. He couldn't swim; it was literally life or death. "She can read minds? How freaky…" whispered Kitty to Danny, and Danny smiled slightly at Kitty's exaggerated shiver.

"Actually, it's more like hacking into any mainframe with the ease of a computer." Everyone froze and slowly turned, to see the new girl standing behind them her arms crossed over her chest. Her red hair was cropped against her head in small spikes, and various earrings fell from her ears. Her eyes really were red; Drake hadn't been exaggerating when he said that they seemed as if they could look into a person's soul. They were really piercing, bored red eyes. The girl really was beautiful in her own way.

Everyone was silent; surprised that she had been behind them the whole time. "Hi, I'm Danny!" Danny said with a kind smile. Kitty nudged her in the ribs with an elbow, though she didn't know what it was for. She was just trying to be nice. The new girl looked Danny over a few times with those piercing red eyes of hers, and then she gave a wicked smirk.

"River," she said. Her voice was scratchy, but held a tune like a broken, old record with your parent's favorite love song in it. It's like hearing an old song for the first time in forever, after blowing the dust of the record and placing it on the player. "I like you Danny, I'm glad I got to meet you." Her eyes were mocking as they fell to the group around her, and she smirked once more. "Who are _these_ losers?"

Kitty gasped, and Bobby just looked away with a shrug. Caleb stiffened, and Drake had disappeared. Danny looked around at the group, "Kitty, Caleb, and Bobby," she said, pointing to each in turn. Kitty once more sharply pinned Danny in the ribs, and this time Danny returned the action, harder and with a forceful shove. Kitty looked baffled by the action, but smiled with fake warmness in the direction of River.

"Welcome to Xavier's, River! Nice outfit." Kitty sneered as she looked River up and down, and Danny glared down at her for being so harsh to the girl.

River crossed her arms once more and slipped one boot out slightly, standing strong and determined with a contempt look on her face. "Likewise, Shitty…"

Kitty stiffened and stuck out her bottom lip, and Bobby hid a smile with one hand covering his mouth. Caleb just coughed, hiding the laughter without any success. "It's Kitty…" she said with a pout.

"That's what I said." River came forward and stood closer to them now with that wicked smile on her face. She turned to Danny with a serious look as she looked her over. River snickered at Danny's outfit, and then she looked over the rest of the group. "Going to the beach, eh? Sounds fun." She wasn't asking to come, or hassling them to ask her to come. It was a demand; she was inviting herself. She wrapped one arm through Danny's and gave a snicker to Caleb as they headed out once more into the sun.

Kitty latched onto Danny's other side, and whispered over to Bobby, "Surprised this girl can stand the sun. She's a demon, I swear."

River leaned forward and smiled evilly toward Kitty, and her eyes widened. "Why thank you, that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." And then she leaned back once more and looked at Danny curiously; she just could not figure out what this girl's power was. "So, Danny, is it?" When Danny nodded, River continued, "What's your amazing power?"

"I control shadows and darkness," she responded, already kind of bored of the question being asked daily. "Kitty can go through walls, Bobby controls ice, and Caleb…well…Caleb aren't you made fully of stone?" Caleb looked at Danny with a sweet smile and nodded.

"Really; Little Miss Pop Princess here can go through walls? I was almost sure she was set on the world to spread the love and all of its pink-ness." River grinned as she received a swift glower from Kitty. "But shadows and darkness; no wonder I liked you so quick! You are my kind of gal!" River wrapped one arm over Danny's shoulders and grinned in false enthusiasm. Danny didn't grin in return, nor did she smile. The thought of her power bothered her, and something was tugging at the back of her mind. There was something she wanted to do today besides hang out with her new friends…but what was it?

Finally they came to the edge of the lake, and Kitty swiftly pulled off her shirt and ran into the water as she desperately tried to pull off her shorts. She was wearing a pink bikini, and River just merely smirked. She had guessed that Kitty was preppy like that. Kitty dove into the water and came back up with a gasp of breath, "Cold!" she wailed and then she laughed as Bobby jumped into the water behind her. Danny laughed and clapped her hands together, laughing into her cupped hands. River just shook her head. "Young love sucks," she grumbled, "wait until you get into the real stuff. Now that's really something." And then she laughed brutally as her wings snapped open.

Danny and Caleb turned to her in awe, watching her wings in wonder. "Your wings are lovely, River!" Danny said softly, wanting to touch the black feathers.

"I love them," River said, her voice softening for the first time, "it's great to know that I really can spread my wings and fly away, and break away…like that song by what's-her-face."

"Kelly Clarkson," Danny suggested.

River laughed that vicious laugh of hers and nodded, "Yeah, her."

"Come on, you slow pokes! The water is great!" Kitty shouted to them. Bobby came in front of her and lifted her up and she squealed when she felt herself lift into the air, and she splashed Bobby with water and when he dropped her, she swam deeper into the water. Caleb shook his head and slipped onto the grass, leaning back on his elbows, watching the two swim.

River looked at Danny. "Aren't you gonna swim?"

Danny pulled off her shirt and slipped onto grass and sprawled out onto the green warmth. "Nah, I'm sitting here for a while. Just relaxing," she let out a nice sigh of relaxation, shutting her eyes to block out the harsh sunrays. River shook her head.

"What about you, Rock Man?"

Caleb opened one eye, looking at River in dim amusement. What an original nickname. "Can't swim." River scoffed, and was about to make fun of him for it, but changed her mind. Instead she turned and started running down the beach side, and then her wings snapped open once more and she flapped once, twice, and then jumped into the air. She rose, and kept rising until she was just merely a line in the sky as she circled the lake, watching the activities bellow.

Danny felt a pair of sunglasses fall over her eyes and she lifted the lenses in surprise, and stared into the eyes of Boulder. Danny smiled and he smiled in return, and then before she knew it his lips were on hers. But it was so quick Danny didn't know if it really happened. She sat up on her elbows and looked at him, but once more he was lying back with his arms under his head, his eyes shut and his mouth in a thin line. Danny looked at him hesitantly. _Had he really…nah_. He had just set his sunglasses over her eyes, nothing more. She lay back, and covered her eyes with the sunglasses once more. She missed the small smile play across Caleb's lips as he opened one eye to look at the girl beside him.

River saw this and a wicked grin played across her lips as she saw the expression of a young man watching the two share a soft kiss, so quick that it hardly happened at all. The young man looked startled as he stood behind the two, but even so he headed beside Danny and sat next to her. River lowered slightly toward the water, and tilted her body to the side, her right, black wing playing with the water bellow her. River straightened out and trailed her fingers in the water, as she watched Danny and the new boy converse. She soon realized his movements toward her, how he reacted to her. There was a little triangle; and River loved to mess with little triangles.

Danny looked at Drake quietly. "So she isn't freaky?"

Danny shook her head. "River is pretty cool." She looked over at Caleb as she sat up and slipped the sunglasses on top of her head; he seemed to be asleep now. Had that kiss really been a figment of her imagination? "Where did you run off to?" she asked, looking at Drake curiously. "Scared of a pretty girl?" She grinned in a kind, mocking way.

"Of course not…" Drake looked over to Caleb cautiously as he was about to add, _'If I was, I wouldn't be talking to you,'_ but he decided not to chance it. Even if the Boulder's strength matched that of Titanium's, he would not chance a fight. He still didn't trust the sleaze. Drake stuck out his chin in determination, as if to prove to her that he wasn't afraid to talk to girls. "Something just came up."

Danny looked at him curiously, but let it pass. "Whatever, Titanium," she looked away and at the couple swimming in the lake. Bobby waved to Danny right as Kitty came up behind him and pressed her hands on the top of his head, making him go under the water. Kitty laughed as Bobby grabbed her waist and flipped her over. Danny smiled and laughed. Drake watched this, and then looked at Danny inquisitively.

River leaned back, her legs moving in a running stroke as her wings slowly folded. Her feet met the ground and then her wings snapped open once more as she tried to slow herself down. She grimaced as the wind hit her large wings, but she finally slowed and she folded her black wings slowly. As much fun she had in the air, after a while her black wings would soak up to much sun and she would behind to over heat. Not to mention she was wearing all black!

When she landed, Danny was already standing and pulling off her shorts as she skipped to the water. She stepped in knee-deep and Danny shivered. "Are you freakin' joking me, Kit? It's freezing!" Kitty laughed and shrugged.

"Swim around a bit, Dee. You'll warm up," Bobby said warmly.

Danny scoffed, "That's easy for you to say, Iceman! You are naturally cold!" He laughed and shrugged, slipping onto his back as he floated there. Kitty laughed when Danny let out a gasped scream. Her arms were crossed over her chest; why had she worn a bikini? _A one piece would make getting into this water so much easier!_

Danny waded into the water now, neck-deep as she swiveled her feet in the water. Suddenly she felt a hand on her waist and it pulled her down and she coughed as she came back up. Drake was laughing in front of her, and Danny swiped a hand down her face, her teeth chattering. Now her hair was wet. "Y-y-you…are s-s-so…g-g-going do-own…" she said through chattering teeth. She shook her head in her ponytail and then dove under the water once more, keeping her eyes shut as she surfaced and ran a hand over her face and spat water. It really was refreshing once you got moving.

Caleb looked up as Drake stepped in quietly behind her. He grabbed her by the waist when she was neck-deep, and had pulled her down under the water and then swam in front of her, grinning and laughing. Caleb snorted; jut because Caleb and Drake were matched in strength, the Titanium boy could swim and have fun with Danny. While Caleb sank right to the bottom of the lake. He felt the presence of River beside him as she sat with her legs bent slightly and her arms resting on her knees. She tilted her head to the side, and then smirked when she looked over to Caleb. "Cute, aren't they?" He didn't answer. "They make me sick." Now he looked at her, and she was serious once more, her red eyes watching the people swimming.

Danny swam backwards, dodging Drake as he swam towards her with his eyes shut and his hands outstretched. Marco Polo; one of Danny's favorite pool games. "Marco…" Danny silently slipped into the water and slowly eased her way farther from Drake. She bumped into something and she felt the hands around her waist for a moment, and then a shove and she was shoved toward Drake. Danny coughed in the water and Drake's head swiveled toward her. Danny scowled and kicked backward at Bobby, who laughed under the water and dove away. Danny swam away as well, and surfaced a few feet away. Drake came up, but nearer to Kitty who was standing slightly on the shore. "I said 'Marco'!"

"Polo!" Danny called, and she had expected Bobby to answer as well but he did not. He just watched in amusement from his safety under the fountain in the center of the lake. Drake grinned and turned slowly, and Kitty let out a sigh of relief. Danny rolled her eyes as he dove under and she turned and dove under as well. She felt his wake beneath her and looked down to see him swimming closely behind her. She tried to speak up, but then she felt fingers grab hold of her ankle and she was pulled back sharply. Danny caught her breath and began coughing in surprise; Drake immediately noted this and grabbed her closely around the waist. He kicked fiercely and they came back to the surface, Danny was coughing fiercely and chocking up water.

"Danny, are you okay?" Bobby asked as he came toward them. Danny nodded and held up a hand for him to stop but she clung to Drake as she coughed and chocked. She had swallowed a lot of water, and she couldn't get that fish taste out of her mouth. Drake began to swim her toward the shore, his eyes clouded in worry. This passed by Danny, however, because she was choking.

Caleb was standing and he came foot deep into the water and helped Danny onto land. She fell to her knees and threw-up, instantly a new pair of feet was in her eyesight and a hand grabbed her bellow the elbow and she was pulled gently to her feet. "What happened?" _That gruff voice._ Danny slowly lifted her head but found she was dizzy and kind of exhausted. She fell against the strong man, and breathed out deeply. She could feel him stiffen as she fell against his chest, but he wouldn't stop the interrogation. "Well?" he pressed.

"We were playing around, Mr. Logan," said Kitty suddenly, eyes wide in fear for her friend.

"Inviso-boy here nearly drowned her," said River in that strange mono-tone of hers.

"Don't call me that," snapped Drake angrily at her. Then he turned to Logan and said, "It was an accident, Logan! I swear…we were just playing some Marco Polo and I was 'it'. I was going after Danny, I guess and I grabbed her around the ankle…" his voice faded and his eyes widened, "I must've not known my own strength in the water. I pulled too hard and she took in water."

Logan groaned and pulled Danny up into a bridal-style hold. "I should take her to the sick wing." He turned to go but Danny's eyes suddenly snapped open and she began to struggle in his grasp. He dropped her in quick surprise and Danny yelped as her butt hit hard ground.

"No, no, I'm fine!" Danny stood too quickly and her head spun. She grabbed hold of Logan in surprise.

"You can hardly stand by yourself, Danny. Come on, let's get you there so Ms. Munroe can take a look at you," that was Bobby.

Danny shook her head. "I'm fine," she snapped and reacting to her sudden personality change, shadows began to flicker around her. River looked around in dim surprise, watching as the shadows took shapes of random things and blinked in and out, growing stronger before going weaker. Danny took a deep, shaky breath and let it out. The shadows calmed and she let go of Logan and stood straighter. She noted that she was still in her bikini. "I'm sorry;" she said softly, "Please, all I need to do is sit in a dark place. I'll be fine. Can I go to my room?"

Logan studied her, but he believed her. She seemed stronger in the dark. He looked over at the three boys and then to the other two girls. "Alright, Danny." He turned to the two girls, "Can you make sure she gets to her room alright, girls?" They both nodded, well…Kitty nodded. River just shrugged.

"But I want to help," Titanium said quickly.

Logan looked over at Drake and snarled at him, "I think you've helped enough." And then he was walking away with his hands in his pockets. Danny shook her head, watching him leave. He was so strange to her, so foreign. One minute he'd be caring, the next he'd be ready to strangle you.

"Come on, Dee, let's get you to your room," Kitty said as she grabbed their clothes and pulled on her cover-up. River helped Danny slip her over-shirt on and then both girls looped their arms through Danny's and they helped her to her room.

Once there, Danny collapsed onto her bed. "Do you need anything else, Danny?" asked River as she studied her new friend's room in amusement. She slowly made her way to the pictures on the wall. _Hot boy,_ she thought dryly.

Danny shook her head. "Just turn off all the lights, 'kay? I should be fine in the dark…" she shut her eyes as Kitty pressed a hand on her back.

"I'll come back here to check on you later, Dee," she said softly and then they made their way to the door. Danny felt the lights turn off and she welcomed the darkness.

It was a few hours later that she was nearly back to her old self. The blinds were shut, the lights off, and Danny was at her strongest. She was aware of everything around her, and when she looked into the mirrors she noted the black aura that surrounded her faintly and how her eyes seemed to be glowing in darkness. She took in a deep breath, and then let it out. And then it hit her; now she remembered what she had wanted to do!

Danny slipped her feet off the bed and held her head with one hand as it spun. And then she stood slowly and came to her dresser. She stared into the mirror, and concentrated on her power. When she felt she could control it, she set her hands on the nearest wall and shut her eyes tightly. She concentrated on the force inside of her and the darkness that rested in her very being. She felt it stir, and then strings of it swept through her body, finding their way to her fingertips. She opened her eyes and once more she came face to face with the portal from the other day, in which she had entered a world made of darkness. She took a deep breath and slowly stepped into the portal.

Danny spun around as the portal blinked out. She ran towards it and searched the air, but there was nothing there. No wall; she was utterly alone and no way out. She took a deep breath, trying to keep cool. She stepped back a few steps and looked around. She found she could see in the dark easily here, and she was thankful for that. But the darkness made her restless; she noted that she felt stronger here than anywhere else in the world. If she really was on her world anymore. She began walking, not knowing where she was, and then something caught her ears. It was a fluttering sound behind her, and she spun around, her arms raised in a fighting stance. Nothing. She turned back around and screamed as something grabbed her wrists and held them in front of her. Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Jake!"

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**A/N:** Dun-dun-dun! Okay, well, I hope that's a good cliffy. I wasn't exactly sure where to end this sucker. Anyways, to get a visual on River, just go to my profile and click the first link under "OC Pictures"; River is added to it. I know the pictures aren't that great, but my scanner is busted. Anyhoo, I hoped you guys liked this! -Solar Beam 


	7. Chapter Six

**Disclaimer: **Let us go through this once more: I do not own any of the Marvel characters or any of the X-Men themes.  
**Story Title: **X-Men: Dauther of Darkness  
**Category: **Romance/Action/…  
**Rating: **T for Teen  
**Pairings: **N/A Yet  
**Summary:**Danny finally knows that Jake is alive, but whatmakes him afraid of the darkness in which he now resides in?

**A/N:** This is a short chapter, I'm sorry. This will actually be my last update for about three weeks, sorry. I'm going out of town, and will be unable to actually save documents to upload onto a computer. So, this is the last update for a while. I'm just sorry it wasn't good. Anyways, enjoy. -Solar Beam

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**_Chapter Six:_ Jake**

Danny collapsed onto the pale-looking boy's chest. "Oh my god, Jake, I am so sorry!" she cried onto his cold shoulder, waiting for him to wrap his arms around her but he did not, he just held onto her wrists and looked past her shoulder as if he were under a trance. "I didn't know what to do when I came back to…you were gone; I couldn't think straight, my house was a _complete_ and _utter_ wreck! And your mother is so worried! I can't believe I sent you here!" She sniffled, waiting for him to answer. When he didn't, she pulled back suspiciously, sniffling a few more times. "J-Jake?"

"Danny," he said, his eyes widening. "Danny…" Danny slowly pulled her wrists away from his grasp and she backed up, shaking her head. What was wrong with him? What did she do to him? Now she could tell what was different about him; his skin was like white silk and was freezing, his eye were pitch black, his clothes were drenched in what seemed like black blood, and his hair was black as well. He looked utterly and completely…dead. He looked dead. He reached for her; he looked so distant. "D-Danny…"

Danny took a few steps back in horror. "My god, Jake, what have I done?" she felt like screaming as he came closer to her. She jumped aside and swung a shadow into him. But Jake merely flashed his eyes at her and he disappeared from sight, and suddenly he was behind her and he grabbed her tightly, holding down her arms. _Now_ she screamed. She screamed with anything and everything she had; she had turned him into a shadow. "Jake, Jake come back to me!" she cried as she felt her knees buckle under her sudden weight. Tears fell down her cheeks in rivers as he held her there, his eyes distant and staring into the darkness. "Jake!" she screamed and suddenly it was as if a light turned on in his mind.

He let go of her and stumbled back, shaking his head. "D-Danny…?" He shook his head and life seemed to come back into his body. His eyes returned to normal, and his skin took on some color, and his hair lightened. "Danny!" Now his arms swung around her waist and he spun her in the air, before justly setting her back on the ground, his hands still on her waist. "Danny why are you crying?" he asked in worry.

"J-…" she couldn't find the words to tell him that he had nearly killed her, "Jake…I am so sorry."

He shrugged and let go of her, looking about the gloominess. "Its okay, Danny. No harm, no foul as my dad always said."

"You aren't mad?"

He looked at her and sighed, scratching the back of his head as he looked down onto the dark ground. Honestly, he was mad. He was _fuming_ mad. He wanted to _strangle_ her he was so mad. He had been dating a mutant and he didn't even know it! "Why didn't you tell me, Dee?" he asked, "Why didn't you tell me you were a mutant?"

She was quiet as she looked down at her feet. She bit her lip; why hadn't she told him? Finally she looked back at him; she wanted him to understand. "It's not like you weren't the only one who didn't know, Jake. I wanted to tell you…my parents; they didn't want anyone to know. And I didn't want you to know, either. I didn't think you'd want to be with me if you knew!" She paused as all of his emotions flashed behind his eyes; surprise, sadness, depression, anger…and most of all disgust. Quickly, she said, "I didn't mean to lose control like that on you, Jake…I promise! You just made me so sad; I thought you were there to be with me…not to use me like that. The shadows play with me emotions, they react. I just lost control…I had no idea what I was doing."

Jake was quiet as he looked away, arms crossed over his strong chest as he took all of it in. "I'm not going to lie; I probably would have hated you if I had known." Danny went silent as she looked away shamefully. "And I'm not going to deny it; I deserved what I got. I got sent here…" he waved his hands about, "and now I am a servant to the darkness. I am one of a thousand living shadows, a shade. Not alive and not dead. I'm in between."

Danny choked on his words. What had she done to him? She fell to her knees buckle and fell to the ground with her face in her hands as she cried. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't be, Danny." Suddenly, something seemed to catch his ears. He looked around for a moment, a frantic look in his eyes. "Danny, you shouldn't come here anymore."

Danny looked up and she sniffled. "What?"

"This is just what They want you to do; to come here. To your Mind. You have to go…" he paused, "now!" he yelled.

Danny stood and backed away. "This is my mind? It's so dark!"

He slammed a hand onto his forehead and shoved Danny away from him. "You shouldn't have come here looking for me!" he said, his frantic attitude seeping into his voice, "Please!" he begged. Danny hesitated, and then she ran. She didn't know where she was going, she was lost. Danny shut her eyes and threw her hands out, and suddenly she ran into something hard and she fell backward onto hard-carpeted ground.

* * *

"Danny?"

Danny shook her head, her forearm draped over her eyes. Her knees were pulled up with her feet planted on the ground and her other arm was wrapped over her stomach. She shook her head again as the door slowly opened. "Danny? Are you hungry?" It was Kitty.

_Kitty…_ Danny fought to get her mind working against.

"Why are you on the ground, silly?" Kitty laughed slightly as she turned on the over-head lights. She set something on Danny's bed and then bent down over Danny and grabbed the arm that was over her eyes and pulled up. "Come on, sleepy head." She laughed slightly, nervously. "Logan told me that it was time for me to come check up on you, you know? And Drake told me that I should bring up some food for you. He was really worried about you…he was telling Ms. Munroe that he deserved a punishment or something." Danny grudgingly sat up and found that she had been lying in front of her bed.

_How did I get here? Maybe it was all a dream._ Danny held her head; it hurt so badly. Kitty helped her to lie down on her bed and she propped up her pillows. "Thanks, Kitty," she said with a muffled yawn. "This is sweet of you."

Kitty studied her friend's appearance and her worried smile turned downward into a frown. "Are you alright? You look pale or something. Have you been crying?" Danny shrugged and Kitty returned the offered action. "Maybe I'm just seeing things." She headed toward the door. "Well, feel better, Danny."

And then she was gone, out the door and down the hall.

Danny paused near the top of the staircase and looked both ways to see if anyone were there at the bottom; no one. She smiled slightly to herself and made her way down the steps. At the bottom, she once more checked both ways. Letting out a light sigh, she let her feet lead the way. They led her straight to a room she didn't recognize; it was filled with books and chairs. The library.

She sighed, knowing exactly why her treacherous feet had pulled her here. They, and secretly she, wanted to think about what Jake had meant. It was a great thing that she had found him, but he had scared her so much. And what had he called himself? A shade? What was that? Danny collapsed into a leather-back chair and threw her head back and moaned.

Something fell off one of the closer tables, and her head snapped up. It was just a book, but books don't fall on their own. She gulped slightly, eyes widened. "Who's there?" she called. No answer. After a moment, she was certain someone was there. She could feel their eyes on her. She stood slowly, bent down, and turned on the lamp beside her chair. She made her way toward the table and she bent down to pick up the book. She clenched her jaw when the book wouldn't budge, as if something were holding it down. And then it was like the pressure was released, and Danny went flying backwards onto the ground, hitting her head on the wood flooring.

"Damn," she growled as she rubbed her head and looked at the book in her hands. _Mythical Creatures_, the large red lettering that was imprinted onto the black cover, sent shivers down her back. She threw the book aside and instead of moving back to the chair, she subsided onto the floor with an angry groan.

"Sorry."

She sat up and noted that a figure stood fingering the table in which she had just been at. "D-Drake?" she asked with a weak voice. She fell back onto the floor with one arm covering her eyes. "What do you want?"

"Just to say 'sorry'. I saw you coming down the stairs and I was just a little curious." Danny removed the arm and sat up, looking at him cautiously.

"I didn't see you, though," she pointed out. And then she remembered his power and slammed her hand against her forehead, "oh right, invisibility." Drake chuckled and came to sit in front of her.

"So, what were you looking for in here?"

Danny shrugged. "Just something to read so that I don't just sit up all night."

Drake nodded slowly, and then he looked at the books a moment, fidgeting his fingers with his arms wrapped around his slightly pulled-up knees. "That's always a good thought," he said, his voice clouded.

An awkward silence fell on both of the teens and Danny slowly stood. "Well, I found what I was looking for," she said, grabbing the book in which had been the closest to her. She waved her hand to Drake, "Good night," she said uneasily.

"Yeah, good night, Danny."

And then Danny was out of there, retreating up the steps and into her room. She backed away from the closed door, the book pressed against her chest. She fell back against her bed and sighed. That's when she took a look at the book she had grabbed and glared at the black cover and red lettering. It was the book on mythical creatures. She threw it aside and she slipped into her covers with a shiver. Sleep soon overcame, and dreams drifted into her eye…


	8. Chapter Seven

**Disclaimer:** I do not own X-Men or any of the Marvel characters, and if I did I would be a genius. Which I'm not. So obviously I do not own any of the wonderful characters.  
**Story Title: **X-Men: Dauther of Darkness  
**Category: **Romance/Action/…  
**Rating: **T for Teen  
**Pairings: **N/A Yet  
**Summary:** Danny is a young, 15-year-old girl with a dark secret. She puts anyone in danger around her, but when she gets sent to the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, will she be able to control her gift and learn her past? Or will she be even more dangerous than before? Takes place after X-men III.

**A/N:** Finally, after a loooooong haitus I am able to write again! I am so proud of myself. Anyways, I just want to thank any of the loyal readers that still will be...loyal to my story and poor Danny. This chapter ends in a really intense spot. THE PLOT IS COMING, YAY! This story won't be that long, I just realized. How sad. Anyways, you know the deal! Enjoy! -Solar Beam

* * *

**_Chapter Seven:_ Homecoming**

Danny tapped her pen in annoyance against the desk. It was her second week of school at the Xavier Academy, and nothing exciting had happened. Not since she had met Jake at that mysterious place only she could get to. Danny felt exasperated with this place, this whole school. More than anything she felt exasperated with herself. She had been losing control easily lately, especially with her anger. One minute she'd be calm, and the next the shadows would be flickering dangerously and her eyes would be iridescent from their normal brown to a pitch black. It had been getting harder and harder for her just to smile. She _needed_ to be happy. It wasn't a yes or no kind of thing for her, something that she didn't have to do. She _had_ to smile, she _had_ to laugh, she _had_ to be happy. She was terrified of what would happen if she wasn't.

"Ms. Hutchinson?" the voice broke through her clouded thoughts and Danny looked up in slight annoyance, wondering who had snapped the ruler against her desk. Her annoyed look instantly changed to a fake, happy look.

"Yes, Mr. McCoy?" she asked the blue beast.

"I asked you a question, Ms. Hutchinson," he said with a tinge of anger, though his eyes read that he was worried about her. He sighed and turned back to the rest of the class, all of which were looking at her curiously and some were snickering and laughing. Danny wished she could laugh along with them. She sunk down into her chair and put her chin in her hand, trying to pay attention to her last class until her free period. "Never mind; would anyone like to help her?" Hands rose and he called on some of the people.

"I would." Everyone turned in their seats to see who was speaking. It was the spunky, red-headed girl with red eyes. River, one of Danny's closest friends now. River was definitely different, and that was one thing that sparked Danny's interest in her. She was just so free, and Danny found that she was often jealous of her rebellious ways. River was sporting the same outfit she had worn when she had first come to the school; the black tank-top that showed too much of her mid-drift, and the short black too-too with fish-nets and black boots. One thing Danny never figured out were the two dog-tags she always sported. River never took them off.

She sat next to Danny, never letting her eyes fall from where Mr. McCoy stood scowling at her slightly. "And you have missed more than half the class because…?" asked Kitty coyly, looking over at River from the other side of Danny.

"I had other plans. Sorry, Teach, you're going to have to talk to Ms. Munroe about this. It was her idea."

Mr. McCoy looked at her for a moment before turning back to the class. "Do you know the answer to the question, River?" he asked, pointing to the white board on the front wall with the ruler. River shrugged.

"Sure, chromosomes. That's what makes up the DNA strands, separating male from female and all that jazz. And mutants." Her eyes narrowed in thought and she leaned back in her chair, grasping the bottom of the desk-top with one hand as her chair stood on the back two legs. "Mutants have an extra chromosome that puts them apart. Mutants are naturally made different."

Danny looked at her friend curiously, and then River looked to her and grinned. "That's what makes all of us different from those Normies," River said. Danny grinned back and Mr. McCoy looked at River coldly.

"Thank you, River." And then the bell rang, and everyone was outside in the main building.

"So, has anyone asked you to homecoming yet?"

It was River, looking at Danny curiously as they shuffled through the crowd to their free period. "No, and thank goodness. I'm not looking forward to any kind of homecoming. I'm not going with or without a date." Danny sniffed.

Kitty came up behind them, looking baffled at Danny, her backpack dangling from one shoulder. "You're crazy! Boulder is totally going to ask you, so you have to go!"

"Boulder is _not_ going to ask me! I won't let him."

"Don't be so stubborn, Dee, even I have a date," River said, putting her hands behind her head casually. Danny looked at her in surprise.

"Isn't that a good thing?" she asked.

River shrugged. "I wanted to go stag. That way I could move around the crowds much easier." She shot a look at Kitty and grinned wickedly, "That way I could _grind_ with more guys."

Kitty gagged and Danny looked away in embarrassment. "River, you're one crazy _chica_," Danny said with a laugh.

"There's nothing wrong with grinding," River said in thought, "everyone's doing it."

Danny wanted to die. This was too embarrassing to talk about. "Haven't you grinded with anyone before, Dee?" she asked. Danny wanted to fall over. She really didn't want to talk about this, because truthfully, she hadn't. And she didn't want to anyways.

Her silence said it all, and even Kitty looked utterly horrified. "What? Really?" Danny shook her head and now Kitty was laughing. "Aw, Dee, don't worry about that. He'll ask you and you'll get the chance." Danny just shook her head. And then she felt someone tap her shoulder and she turned. Boulder was smiling down at her. He was wearing a gray T-shirt and a black pair of pants with tennis-shoes, but even that didn't set him off. He still made Danny want to smile. And she did.

"Hey, Danny."

"Bye, Dee! I have to go to class before I'm counted tardy." There went Kitty, rushing down the hall waving good-bye over her shoulder with a silly grin on her face. Boulder looked over to River expectantly, but River stayed where she was, slightly scratching at one of her black wings casually.

"What's happening, Rock Man?" she asked.

Boulder shrugged. "I was actually hoping to talk to Danny…" he paused, "_alone_," he said with emphasis.

River looked at Boulder, and then to her friend who was looking at the ground in deep thought. "Nah, I think I'm going to hang around." She grinned wickedly. "We should go do something. Kitchen is out of the answer, so many kids will be there. We should go to one of our rooms and watch TV."

Danny was now looking at River hesitantly. "I didn't know we got TV in our rooms…"

River shook her head quickly. "I meant go to one of the game rooms and watch TV. I heard there is a new Days of Our Lives on today." Of course, she was all sarcasm on the Days of Our Lives thing. While Danny quite liked the show, River liked to mock her and poke fun at her for liking a soap.

And then someone rammed into Danny, making her topple to the side. Thankfully, Boulder caught her and set her upright, looking at the one who had shoved her. "Watch where you're going, fish!" snapped the beautiful, older girl. She had blonde hair that fell to her mid-back and was striped with black hair. Her eyes looked cat-like, golden, and completely stunning. Her cheekbones met her whole face perfectly; it was all so perfectly shaped and Danny immediately felt smaller compared to her.

"Hey, cool it, Tiger! She was just minding her own business!" Boulder retorted.

The beautiful girl stopped and looked Danny over a moment in distaste. Danny was wearing a pair of Gap jeans and a Gap, blue, button-down top that fell gracefully against her curves. The girl didn't care. She just snarled at Danny, setting her hands on her hips. "So, you're the new girl," she said smoothly. "The oh-so-powerful-shadow-girl," she smirked, "you don't look like much. You better watch where you're going next time, fish; I might not let it pass." And then she shoved past the small group and disappeared into Mr. McCoy's door.

River's fists were clenched tightly at her sides. "Who the hell was that?" she snapped.

"That was Tiger Lilly, a senior at the Academy. She can turn into a full white tiger, and then she can transform some of her traits so that she looks like a girl with fur and cat ears and tail. It's really awesome. Unfortunately, she has every personality trait of a cat. Completely unpredictable and she never does what others tell her to do," answered Boulder, shaking his head, "she's the most popular girl in the Academy. At least, in the senior class."

Danny felt like crumbling into herself. She had felt inferior compared to that girl. She had never felt so small in her life! She was quiet, still watching the door that Tiger Lilly had disappeared into. "Is Tiger Lilly her nickname?" asked River.

"Yeah. Her real name's Anne Kelly."

Danny turned slowly and began walking away. Her two friends chased to catch up. They didn't say a word, just followed her into one of the game rooms. "Finally!" Danny looked up to see Titanium sitting on one of the black leather couches, looking at them from upside down, his neck straining against the cushions. "What took so long?"

Danny sat silently next to him. "We ran into Tiger Lilly," was all Boulder said before changing the channel from News to MtV. Titanium looked as if he were about to yell at Caleb for changing the channel, but instead he turned to Danny.

"She confronted you, huh? I knew it would come around some time. She's been talking bad about the 'new girl who thinks she's all that'. I was wondering if she meant it was you." He grinned sheepishly. At that comment, River slammed down into him, sitting on top of him despite his cry of shock. "Get off of me, River!" River shook her head and leaned back instead, a curious look on her face.

"Do you guys hear something? It sounds like a muffled voice, but I think it's just the wind."

Caleb agreed, "Yeah, I thought I heard something at first. But I think one of the windows is open and it's just the wind."

Danny looked over at River. "Get up off of him, Riv," she said quietly. River looked at her blankly for a moment, but then shrugged and got off of him, sitting next to him instead.

Danny leaned back against the couch. She needed to be happy. Needed to force it out. She could feel the shadows overlapping her dangerously. In need to be happy, Danny was suddenly jumping from the couch and spinning around to her friends with a wild smile. "Come on, guys, let's play some foosball!" They blinked at her and she felt like a completely idiot. She slowly sunk back into the couch, a dark blush covering her cheeks.

"I'll play with you, Danny!" both Caleb and Drake said at the same time. River blinked and then a wicked grin played across her lips.

"I'll join, too. Come on, it'll be…fun." River stood and led Danny to the foosball table. Danny blinked at the handles on the wooden sticks, staring at the little men, and then looked back at the handles. She forgot how terrible she was at this game. "Danny and I will be on one team, and you two will be on the other." They all blinked but got into their assigned placed. Danny was the goalie and defense, and River was the offense. Drake and Caleb argued who would be put as goalie. Drake ended up being it.

They began playing, and instantly the ball was in a goal. "Danny!" River moaned angrily. "Come on, you can block better than that!" Danny smiled guiltily, but stayed quiet. They began playing once more. A few minutes later, the boys had scored another goal. Once more River moaned and criticized Danny until finally Danny cracked a grin and began criticizing her back. Finally, the boys had six goals, and the girls had only one. River moaned and stomped her foot.

"Danny, this isn't working out," she said, pointing at Danny with fake anger. "I think its time to split up. Team up with different people. Danny, you go with Caleb. Drake, you're with me."

Caleb held in a large grin that begged to escape, and instead clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "That's right! Come on over, new team-mate!"

Drake sputtered. "Wh-what? You can't just change teams like that!"

River put her nose in the air, crossing her arms mockingly. "I will, and I did. Danny, shoo. We're over." Danny held in a laugh and instead just shrugged, going to Caleb's side as Drake angrily crossed over to River's.

Danny and Caleb ended up winning, and Danny's spirits had been raised by Caleb's animated playing. When they won by nine points, he had spun around and grabbed Danny by her waist and swinging her around. Danny laughed harder than she had in a long time, while trying to sputter angrily at him at the same time. Drake seemed utterly put-out, and River just smirked at this.

Danny stumbled backward when she was set on her feet, laughing. "Okay, that's enough," she said while laughing, "I can't breathe." She held her ribs while another laugh escaped her lips. It felt good to laugh earnestly, without having to force it out. "I think I'm going to go get some water, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Before anyone could say anything, she began heading to the door. Someone opened it for her and she looked back to see Caleb smiling down at her. "I'll come to, I'm hungry anyways." River smirked, crossing her arms over her chest as she turned back to Drake, who looked utterly extinguished.

Danny and Caleb walked down the hall, Danny keeping a respective distance from Caleb even though he tried swinging one arm over her shoulder. She ducked out of his way when he tried and just smiled nervously at him. Finally he cut in front of her so she couldn't walk. She stepped left, he stepped to his right. She stepped to her right, he stepped left. She sighed heavily. "Yes?" she asked.

Caleb smiled. "I wanted to ask you something earlier, but River wouldn't leave us alone."

Danny felt a chill run down her spine, and the hairs on her neck stand up. The familiar feeling of being watched. She turned her head slightly and looked down the hall curiously. Nothing was there.

"Danny?" he asked. Had he been talking? She looked back at him. "Didn't you hear anything I asked?" He sighed heavily and then chuckled. "You've been so dazed lately, Dee. You need to get out and have fun. Please come with me to the Homecoming dance."

Danny blinked once, twice and then she opened her mouth, only to close it once more. Kitty had been right; he did want to ask her. She felt terrible for what she was about to do. "I'm sorry, Caleb…I-I really wasn't planning on going."

He sighed heavily. "Drake's already asked you?" Danny blinked once more.

"…No. I just really wasn't planning on going. Why do I need an excuse for that?"

Caleb shrugged and looked at her closely. "You're coming with me, Dee. You haven't smiled in a week; I mean really smiled. And you haven't laughed like _that_ since the day you choked at the lake. You're coming with me. Kitty will go with you to get a dress, I'm sure of it. We can go together, and spend time together, and we can go just as friends. As long as you get out, I don't care what we do."

Danny blinked. "That's sweet," she said so softly she hadn't even heard herself. She sighed heavily and looked away as the feeling of being watched went away. "Okay, I'll go with you, Caleb." He grinned and leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. Danny's eyes bulged and she lightly pushed him away with one hand on his chest. "But as…friends…" she said, her lips pulsing with the heat of even their light kiss. So this was not her imagination. He had kissed her just then, and he had probably done it at the lake, too.

He didn't look disappointed. He just smiled. "Alright, Dee, alright." He stepped back into place at her side, his arm draping over her shoulder before she could dodge. "As friends." He led her to the kitchen.

* * *

Danny laughed at River and Kitty as they argued. They were arguing over who would do Danny's make-up for the dance, and then who would do Danny's hair. River wanted to do the make-up, and Kitty clearly wanted to do the hair. Unfortunately, Kitty was scared River would put too dark of make-up on Danny's face to match her dress, and River was scared that Kitty would put Danny's hair up in a tall tower as if she had been from the old ages. Therefore, they were arguing. Danny sighed. Caleb had asked her way too late, the dance was only a few days away now. He had asked on Tuesday, and the dance was Friday. She crossed her legs lightly and set her chin in her hand, shutting down her ears to block out their arguing. 

She began thinking of Jake. She hadn't gone back to see him. She probably should have. But hadn't he told her not to come back? Didn't he say that she _shouldn't_ come back? Something had spooked him at her last visit. Something bad had spooked him, and he had forced her away. He had said that that place was her mind. _But if it's my mind, how can I be there? How can I go there without hurting myself?_, she wondered silently, changing her chin into her other hand.

"Danny, what do you think?"

Danny shrugged.

"Danny!"

"Look, Shitty, if she doesn't want to get into this, don't make her! This is between _you_ and _me_— not you, me, and Danny."

"Shitty!" Kitty's voice had risen into a high squeak, "Damn you, River! My name is _not_ Shitty! It's Kitty!"

River smirked easily. "And the difference is…?"

Kitty let out an aggravated yell and she stomped out of the kitchen, smoke nearly rising from her head and steam pouring from her ears. River laughed slightly and turned to Danny, a silly grin on her face. Only Danny had ever seen that smile of River's. No one else had. "You shouldn't do that to her."

River just laughed again. "Why not?"

"Because," Danny said, "eventually you are going to break her. Then what fun would you have?" Danny kicked the cabinet with her heel as she watched her friend open the fridge.

"I won't break her. Shitty's tough, she can handle it."

Danny was silent a moment, and then she said, "It isn't nice, River. When you break her, you break her spirit. She won't be Kitty. She won't even be Shi—Shooty."

"You can't cuss, can you?"

Danny was silent once more, her eyes downcast. "So what?"

River just shrugged and shut the fridge door, a beer in her hand. Danny studied her. What was it and her friend's addicted to beer? Drake drank beer, River drank beer, and even Caleb had his occasional. Kitty didn't, but she was sure Bobby had one every once in a while. Just as River was sitting at the counter and opening her beer, a large hand took it from her.

"No beers for the minors."

River glared at Logan. "I can drink a beer if I want to!" she snapped.

Logan shrugged and set down, opening the beer with a flick of his strong wrist and taking a swig. "How're you doin', kid?" he asked Danny.

Danny studied him a moment. She had yet to find out what his 'gift' was. River didn't care what it was, and Kitty and the others said that Danny would have to find out on her own. Danny was getting tired of having to guess, but she was scared to ask Logan. She wasn't exactly sure she was comfortable with telling people her own power yet!

"Danny got asked to Homecoming," River said smoothly, eyeing the beer that had currently been placed on the counter.

Logan met Danny's eyes with his cold blue ones. "Who asked you?" he asked, his voice becoming gruffer.

Danny shrugged. "No one in particular."

"Rock Man asked her!" River said with false enthusiasm.

Danny sighed quietly and looked away from Logan's piercing gaze. "Boulder, eh? That's good of you to go. You need to get out." Logan muttered, taking a deep mouthful of his beer.

Danny was suddenly standing on the tiled floor, her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed. "Why does everyone keep saying that? I'm fine. I don't need to 'get out'. I'm perfectly healthy in the _mind_ and in _health_!" Shadows flickered slightly in reaction to her sensitive anger. Her eyes widened and she quickly got herself in check, taking a deep, shuttering breath and letting it out.

Logan and River were silent, staring at her uneasily. "I'm going up to my room," grumbled Danny, unable to handle their anxious stares any longer.

She made her way up the steps, walking slowly. Her hands tightened on the railing as she paused for a moment, her eyes tightening shut. It was getting harder to control. She could feel it deep down. Something was coming, and it was coming fast. It was very faint, but she was sure of it. Her eyes opened slightly and she let out a heavy breath. That's when she felt a hand grab her shoulder. She stiffened and was ready to swing around when a laugh came.

"Gosh, Dee, you're so jumpy!"

"Not now, Drake," Danny breathed, rubbing her forehead with one hand.

"I want to ask you something, Danny. It'll only take a second," he said in disappointment.

"I said _not now_, Drake!"

Drake was silent. And then he said quietly, "Alright, Dee. Alright. I'll come see you later." His hand disappeared from her shoulder and he made his way down the steps, completely disappearing. Danny let out a moan and finished the way up the stairs.

* * *

Danny sighed as she looked at the dresses. She had gotten an excuse to leave school with Kitty and River to go shopping for a dress. Logan was with them, of course, being her protector and all. It was Thursday afternoon. It was dark, cloudy, and not a beat of sunshine shown through. Danny felt on guard, as if that something she thought was going to happen would happen that day. The darkness wasn't helping either; every one of her senses was on tack. And Danny was effectively worn out. 

They had been walking for two hours straight, and Danny could only take so much of her friend's fighting. Logan had already taken to walking a few feet behind them, his eyes never leaving Danny's back as he walked inconspicuously behind her. Honestly, they hadn't gone into any store yet. Every dress store they had picked out, Danny had shook her head and said 'no'. No expensive dresses. And then Danny had seen a small dress store and her eyes had lit up; the first true smile the small group had seen all morning. She had made her way inside only to pause and turn to River and Logan, who were both hesitating at the door.

"River? Mr. Logan?" she had asked nervously.

"I shouldn't go in," River had said seriously, "I wouldn't blend in as well as you all." She nodded to the large over-coat she was wearing to cover up her wings. "Besides, I'm cramping. I need to go for a flight. I'll be back in thirty." She had disappeared without another word into the nearest alley. She was next seen a few minutes later flapping her wings angrily at the still wind, lifting into the sky with vigor.

Danny had looked Logan curiously. "You can do this yourself. There's a cigar vendor near-by. I'll be back in twenty minutes, don't go anywhere, Kid. Stay with Kitty." He waved slightly and walked down the street.

Danny sighed and turned to follow Kitty. Now they were looking at the dresses. "This one's nice," Danny said, pulling off a size six dress carefully. She looked at the price and nearly died. "Nevermind." She had began to put the dress back up with Kitty stopped her.

"Try it on."

Danny sighed; there was no arguing with Kitty on this. She tucked the dress over her arm was about to go wander around the store once more when a woman came up with a pleased smile. "Would you like me to start a dressing room for you?"

Danny sighed and then forced a kind smile on her lips. "Yes, please." She handed her the two dresses she currently was holding. The woman nodded and disappeared. Danny did a circle around the room, her eyes wandering over the dresses. She fingered the fabric of a black, satin dress. Printed near the bottom were an intricate, white flower design (near the bottom right) and the straps, which crisscrossed, were white as well.

"How lovely," someone said behind her. Danny spun around and then looked up into red eyes. But they were not the familiar red eyes. These were much brighter, hungrier. She stepped back in surprise. He grinned a light smile.

"Sorry," he said simply, shrugging, "just me talking out of my ass."

Danny nodded slowly, took the dress from the rack, and made her way toward the dressing rooms.

Once inside her dressing room, Danny leaned against the wall and let out a gasp of breath. _He was _hot She shook her head, wiping a drop of sweat from her forehead, and began to undress. She went through various dresses, coming out and spinning around in front of Kitty as a model would. Kitty shook her head at each one, her nose wrinkled slightly.

"I'm going to find another dress, I'll be right back! Keep trying on!" Kitty yelled from outside the door.

"Alright!" Danny answered, stepping into the black and white dress she had picked out earlier. She pulled the confusing straps over her head, stepping out of her dressing room and looking at herself in the mirror.

And then someone whistled.

And then Danny saw the reflection of two guys behind her. One she recognized from earlier, the one who had spoken to her with the red eyes. His hair was a light brownish-blonde color, spike up slightly in the front. He was wearing a heavy, black coat over a brown shirt with jeans and army boots. His hands were shoved into the coat pockets.

The man standing next to him was definitely older by some years, with laughing, mocking eyes. He wore a gray leather jacket over a black shirt, with jeans and the same army boots as the other guy. His hair was black and curly and clung to his head handsomely. His chin was strong, his nose fitting perfectly between two dark-brown eyes. Danny swung around, her hands tightly at her sides to keep the dress skirt from spinning and rising up in the air.

Both boys smiled, making Danny feel uneasy. _Where was Kitty?_

"Hey, now. I have great taste, don't I, Madrox?"

The other guy nodded. "Yeah, John, great taste. She makes me hungry just looking at her."

Danny was cornered. They were leaning against the dressing room doors, and Danny was against the three-way mirror. No one was back there with them. Danny felt as if she would choke from claustrophobia. "Hello, again," she choked out. She was calling Kitty silently in her mind, though she knew her friend couldn't hear her. "Nice view?' she asked bitterly.

The two guys laughed, and then the one named John stepped forward. "I hate people like you," he said coldly, "I bet you're getting ready for Homecoming, right?" His eyes were narrowed dangerously and he was opening and closing a lighter. Danny watched him uneasily, stepping back as he took a step forward.

"What of it?" she asked daringly.

Both men smirked now and Danny's heart fell. Now they both were walking toward her. Danny panicked. She ducked under John's arm and began racing past the other guy. Suddenly, the other guy was in front of her. She ran into his chest stumbling backward. After getting her footing she spun around the other direction and ran into him _again_!

_What the hell?_

She began to turn back around but there he was! She squeaked and turned around to her left. There he was. Her eyes widened. There were _two_ of him? Someone grabbed her from behind. She turned her head in terror. _Three_ of him?

Danny was getting ready to open her mouth and scream when John was suddenly in front of her. He opened the lighter in front of her face and suddenly a flame enveloped her hand. She flinched backward by instinct; light. Light and it burned. John smirked. "You humans think you got it easy? Think you can just go to any damn thing you want to without a care in the world?" The flame grew angrily and Danny's brown eyes widened in fear. Shadows began to flicker nervously. No one took notice.

"Well, answer me, damn you!"

The flame was warming her face, making her sweat slightly. She bit her lip. He was angrier, because the flame was growing. Suddenly smelled something burning, something like burning hair. Her eyes suddenly widened and she glanced upward at a strand of hair that was burning slightly. Danny panicked once more. She slapped her hands together and two shadows sprang up and encircled Danny.

"What the hell?" John cried, looking at the black shadow that now covered the girl. What kind of human was this?

"That's not a human! That's a mutant!" exclaimed the other man.

"Danny?"

"Kid, where are you?"

Danny put the fire out in the strand of hair with her index finger and thumb with a slight pout. She'd have to cut that strand off. The shadows fell from around her and now she was standing there fingering that strand of hair with a strict glower on her lips.

"Danny!" A gasp. "Pyro?"

"Shadow Cat?"

"Multiple man?"

"Wolverine?"

Danny felt like crying out of exasperation. Everyone knew everyone except for her. Brilliant.

Kitty spun around to face Danny. Her eyes were wide. "Danny, that dress is perfect!"

"Kitty, focus!" snarled Logan. Suddenly, three razor-sharp claws sprung from his knuckles on each hand, sharp and silver. He stepped forward toward the guy with the leather jacket. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Shopping," John answered with narrowed eyes, "What are you doing here?"

"Shopping," Kitty said, glaring at them.

Danny just stood there quietly. "She's with us," Kitty added wrapping an arm around Danny's shoulders protectively.

"Ah, so she's an Institute student," he sniffed. "Should've guessed."

"Get out of here, Pyro," Logan growled, taking a step forward threateningly.

Pyro raised his hands defensively. "Don't have to tell us twice. This place is boring anyways." He nodded to the other guy and they were walking past. He paused beside Kitty and glanced at her with a small smirk. "Give Bobby and Rogue a happy hug for me, eh?"

Danny narrowed her eyes curiously. "_Marie's_ not at the Institute anymore," Kitty said coldly.

"Oh, so that's how it is." He shrugged and disappeared around the corner.

Logan and Kitty looked at Danny. She shrugged. "I'm fine. This is the dress."

"Are you sure?" asked Kitty.

"I'm sure."

"Alright then, I'm paying. Change." Logan shoved her lightly into the dressing room and shut the door.

* * *

_Bang._

Danny twitched in her sleep, rolling over onto her other side, away from the light.

_Bang, bang._

The rain hammered against her window, the lightning lit up her room into an iridescent blue, and thundered rolled across the sky in waves. Danny slept on, trying to ignore the banging. Once more she rolled over.

_Bang, bang, bang._

Danny shoved the sheets off of her and sat up in bed, glaring toward the darkness. She slipped out of bed and opened her door, looking down the dimly-lit hall way. No one was there. She crept down the foyer, jumping once or twice when a blue lightning flash lit up the entire hall. She finally met the top of the stairs and looked down from the first step just as she saw someone else going toward the door. He was scratching his head and yawning slightly, his hair mangled.

He unlocked the door.

He turned the knob.

He opened the door.

Silence and then a shocked:

"Marie?"


End file.
